A thunderstorm that barreled through the region Sunday evening ahead of a cold front resulted in two brief tornado touchdowns in this area.

The National Weather Service in St. Louis confirmed Monday morning that an EF-1 tornado landed just west of New Athens at 5:47 p.m. Sunday, causing damage to a few structures and trees before lifting just east of town. 

Per a map provided by the weather service, this tornado touched down on Clinton Street just south of Spotsylvania Street and continued east before lifting just north of New Athens Elementary School.

Per the NWS, the path of the tornado measured .58 miles in length with a maximum wind speed of 90 miles per hour and a maximum width of 225 yards.

Fortunately, no injuries were reported in this weather incident.

Also on Monday, the NWS confirmed that an EF-0 tornado touched down at 5:35 p.m. Sunday just north of Ames at the far eastern border of Monroe County. 

This minor twister traveled northwest into Randolph County for about 8.7 miles with a maximum wind speed of 85 miles per hour, lifting just north of Griggs less than 10 minutes later.

There was also damage reported as a result of this small tornado, mostly to trees and outbuildings. 

There was roof damage reported to Trinity Lutheran Church located at 10247 South Prairie Road southeast of Red Bud, per the weather service.

Again, no injuries were reported.

Speaking during his report as part of Monday’s city council meeting, Waterloo Public Works Director JR Landeck said Sunday’s storm event was a “night and day difference” from a severe storm nearly a year ago to the day that resulted in downed power lines along Route 3 and power outages when a tornado hit the north end of town.

“We had only a couple of blinks on our power system” this time out, Landeck said. 

He said that efforts made over the past year to trim trees, replace power poles, and swap out aging equipment have made a positive change.

“This recent weather event was the first real test of the upgrades and improvements that we’ve done,” he said. “We’ve moved from being reactive to more resilient collectively, and the city’s in a much better spot because of it.”

But while this first severe weather event of 2026 did little damage in Monroe County, it did reveal a few issues with emergency notification.

During Monday’s Monroe County Board meeting, Monroe County Public Safety Director Kevin Scheibe reported that about 80 percent of county residents did not receive a CodeRED alert.

Scheibe explained the computer system that handles these emergency alerts was compromised in November, although the effect of the cyber-attack was not fully known until Sunday evening.

He added the CodeRED company has been made aware of this situation and is working on a solution.

Scheibe also reported that a “manual override” was needed for one tornado siren near the Columbia Lakes Subdivision.

Columbia City Administrator Doug Brimm further explained this situation during Monday night’s city council meeting.

He said a “controller” installed last year automatically sounds the alarms when a warning is issued anywhere in Monroe County.

Also new is a verbal announcement of the warning through the speaker system following the siren blast. 

While Brimm acknowledged receiving a number of calls about Sunday’s sirens, he said the system worked exactly as intended.

Both Brimm and Scheibe pointed out that the sirens are intended to warn people who are outdoors during a severe weather event.

“You’re not really supposed to hear the sirens indoors,” Scheibe said. “That’s not your alert system.”

Both urged county residents to have an NOAA weather radio or some other emergency alert system available indoors for updates during emergency updates.

Scheibe also applauded the work of seven new weather spotters who were activated Sunday evening.

“They were quite excited,” Scheibe said, adding, “They did good. Very good.”

Overall, Scheibe said the weather event was “a good beginner” to the storm season. 

“I’d like to say this is our last one, but that’s part of the job,” he said.

(with additional reporting from Scott Woodsmall)