IL

Storm restoration across Madison County

Madison County sits at the northern edge of the St. Louis metro area along the Mississippi River, placing it squarely in one of Illinois' most active severe-weather corridors. NWS data documents more than 80 tornadoes in the county since 1814, including three EF4 events (1948, 1981, 2011) and a long-track EF4 in April 2011 that crossed the Mississippi from St. Louis into Pontoon Beach and Granite City. The county experiences frequent large hail, derecho-driven straight-line winds, and damaging thunderstorm gusts - the NWS notes that the greatest Illinois tornado frequency runs in a band from Madison and St. Clair counties northeastward, and thunderstorm winds cause more annual property damage than tornadoes. The Mississippi River, Illinois Route 3 corridor, and low-lying areas around Alton, Hartford, and Roxana face repeated flash flooding and riverine flood events, with the Army Corps of Engineers and Southwestern Illinois Flood Prevention District maintaining active flood mitigation programs. Winter storms bringing ice, freezing rain, and heavy snow are a seasonal hazard across the county each year.