A tornado touched down briefly in Naperville on June 11 before moving to Lisle, according to a preliminary report from the National Weather Service.
The category EF-0 twister landed around 8:04 p.m. near Gartner Road and Oleson Drive before traveling northeast through the Huntington Hills and Oleson Estates subdivisions. Both neighborhoods saw snapped and uprooted trees in a “narrow path” of about 50 to 75 yards, a report from the National Weather Service said.
“The worst damage was when the tornado crossed Naper Boulevard,” said Brett Borchardt, a weather service senior meteorologist. “There’s about a 150-yard swath there of trees that were snapped and uprooted, and then the tornado lifted just west of Benedictine University in Lisle.”
It traveled for about 1.3 miles before diminishing at 8:06 p.m., data shows. The 150-yard width is about the length of a football field, but no injuries or building damage were reported as a result of winds that reached a peak 80 mph, he said.
EF-0 is considered the lowest rating on the EF or Enhanced Fujita scale, which ranges from 0-5. An EF-0 has winds of between 65 to 80 mph while an EF-5 tornado is exceeds 200 mph. Borchardt said that while EF-0 is the lowest rating, that does not mean it was not dangerous.
More severe weather is expected in the Chicago area Wednesday.
“We are looking at a threat for severe weather on Wednesday. At this point in time, the worst of the weather is favored to go south of Naperville, but it’s going to be another one of those days just to be weather aware, just in case that threat area moves northward,” Borchardt said.
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The Naperville-Lisle tornado was one of at least 29 that tore across Illinois and northwest Indiana last week, according to National Weather Service preliminary reports.
As of the agency’s latest count, 17 of the confirmed tornadoes occurred in northern Illinois and northwest Indiana and nine were in central Illinois. The Quad Cities weather service office confirmed three tornadoes in western Illinois of unknown intensity that caused no known damage.
The 17 tornadoes in northern Illinois and northwest Indiana brought the area’s tally for 2026 to 44 — already the third most of any year since recordkeeping began in 1950.
Naperville is no stranger to tornadoes. In June 2021, an EF-3 tornado struck the northern part of the city, damaging dozens of homes and injuring several people. The worst of the destruction occurred in the Ranch View neighborhood, where many were left recovering from its the effects long after it the tornado passed.
In July 2024, an EF-1 tornado was confirmed to have touched down in south Naperville. With peak winds of up to 100 mph, it started in Oswego, crossed into Will County near U.S. 30 and moved into the Naperville area near Route 59 and 95th Street.
No one was injured, but it carved a damage path of just over 19 miles while on the ground for 23 minutes.
The Tribune’s Adriana Perez contributed to this report.