According to data from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, during June, there were 165 preliminary tornado reports compared to the 1991-2010 average of 243. The June tornado count was less than 50 percent of the number of tornadoes that occurred in May. The past three years have generally been marked by below-average tornado activity, with the exception of April and May 2015. The June tornado count indicates a return back to below-average activity. There were no tornado-related fatalities during June.

For the first half of 2015 there have been 803 preliminary tornado reports. There were 41 confirmed tornadoes during January-March, with 762 preliminary tornado reports pending for April-June. This is near the 1991-2010 average number of tornadoes for January-June of 818. The year-to-date tornado count is the most since the hyperactive tornado year of 2011.

Significant Events

June 22nd IL Tornadoes
June 22 Northern Illinois Tornaodes
Source: NWS

The most active tornado day during June was the 22nd as an upper-level low pressure system moved from the Northern Plains into the Midwest. There were 25 preliminary tornado reports across the Midwest from Iowa to Michigan. Twelve tornadoes were confirmed in northern Illinois, ten of which were spawned from a single, long-lived supercell thunderstorm that tracked across six counties. The strongest tornado of the outbreak was an EF-3 that tracked across Grundy and Will counties in Illinois, with maximum winds of 160 mph. This was the strongest tornado to impact Grundy County since July 1972. During the entire outbreak, there were 14 reported injuries, but no fatalities. The storms also caused significant flash flooding, with three to five inches of rain falling in a few hours across already saturated soils.

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Citing This Report

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Monthly Tornadoes Report for June 2015, published online July 2015, retrieved on March 29, 2024 from https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/tornadoes/201506.