Tornado Warning Issued for Mercer and Rock Island Counties in Illinois, and Louisa and Muscatine Counties in Iowa
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on April 16, 2026, 4 months ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
A Tornado Warning is in effect until 8:30 PM CDT for parts of northwestern Illinois and southeastern Iowa, with a confirmed tornado near Letts moving east at 35 mph.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Tornado Warning
- Affected area
- Southeastern Iowa and Northwestern Illinois
- Issued
- April 16, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Quad Cities IA IL
Tornado warnings are short-window notices for the named area. The issuing office is the authority on whether the warning remains active or has been replaced.
Record status: historical. It was issued 4 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Southeastern Iowa and Northwestern Illinois.
Alert Details
The National Weather Service in Quad Cities IA IL has issued a Tornado Warning, effective from 8:02 PM CDT on April 15, 2026, until 8:30 PM CDT the same day.
Affected Areas
The warning affects Southwestern Rock Island County and Northwestern Mercer County in northwestern Illinois, Central Louisa County in southeastern Iowa, and Southwestern Muscatine County in east central Iowa. Specific locations include Letts, Muscatine, Fruitland, Ardon, and Muscatine Municipal Airport.
What You Should Do
To repeat, a tornado is on the ground. TAKE COVER NOW! Move to a basement or an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building. Avoid windows. If you are outdoors, in a mobile home, or in a vehicle, move to the closest substantial shelter and protect yourself from flying debris. This cluster of thunderstorms is capable of producing tornadoes and widespread significant wind damage.
Expected Conditions
Hazards include a damaging tornado and ping pong ball size hail (1.50 inches). Flying debris will be dangerous, with potential damage to roofs, windows, vehicles, and trees. Mobile homes may be damaged or destroyed.
Timeline
The alert is effective from 8:02 PM CDT on April 15, 2026, and expires at 8:30 PM CDT on the same day.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
All Weather Alerts →Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 8
Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,269 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to April 16, 2026.
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