Tornado confirmed near O’Hare as evening storms spark tornado warnings in Cook, DuPage counties
CHICAGO — Weather sirens in city and suburban communities across the Chicago area blared Wednesday evening as strong thunderstorms triggered tornado warnings in Cook and DuPage counties.
At least one tornado was confirmed as having touched down near O’Hare International Airport, according to the National Weather Service. The poor weather briefly grounded all flights at O’Hare and Midway airports, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
While the weather service hadn’t confirmed any other tornadoes, fire officials in Elgin were on the scene of a suspected tornado touchdown that damaged 30 homes.
A NWS meteorologist also confirmed storm damage in the west suburbs, including Countryside, Elgin and Lily Lake. The worst damage near Chicago was a “roof off” in Huntley.
Weather officials warned residents in the path of the storm as it moved east toward Lake Michigan. “These dangerous storms will be near Evanston, West Ridge, Rogers Park and Edgewater around 720 p.m.,” the National Weather Service said.
ComEd reported outages affecting more than 10,000 customers in the area with the biggest cluster of outages taking place in the East Garfield Park area, where two outages affected 515 customers.
Area residents received an emergency tornado warning from the National Weather Service until 7:45 p.m. Central time, the second warning of the evening.
“At 6:51 p.m., severe thunderstorms capable of producing a tornado were located along a line extending from Schaumburg to Glendale Heights, moving east at 30 mph,” the service announced on its website.
By 7:45 p.m., most of the destructive weather had moved out over the lake, ending the weather warnings.
Dave Hoyne, who lives near South Street and Shadow Hill Drive in Elgin said he and his wife Kyla saw the funnel clouds firsthand as the weather changed dramatically outside their home.
After receiving a phone weather alert, Hoyne’s wife ran upstairs to get their cat so they could head to the basement. “She looked out the window, which faces toward the south, and said, ‘Oh, my god, look at that. It’s a tornado,’” Hoyne said.
As Hoyne ran upstairs to join her, pulling out his phone to take photos in the process, he could see debris swirling around in the funnel. He said initially it looked like one tornado but as it moved east, he could see it break into two separate funnels.
Only a short while later, in the aftermath, the sky was blue and sunny for a short period of time.
Hoyne said it was his second experience with a tornado — the first being as a child but it went right over his home and, again, did no damage.
Earlier in the day, the weather service cautioned that flash flooding was possible as showers and thunderstorms were expected to move across the area with a couple of rounds expected to release 1 to 2 inches of rain per hour.
A flash flood watch was called Wednesday for portions of northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana. In northeast Illinois, the watch covered central Cook, DuPage, eastern Will, southern Cook and southern Will counties. In northwest Indiana, Lake County was an area of concern, officials said.
Flight cancellations and delays were rolling into Chicago’s two airports. Shortly before noon Wednesday, 254 flights had been canceled at O’Hare International Airport and 415 flights were delayed, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
The largest share of the cancellations was made up by regional carrier SkyWest, which operates flights for major carriers, including United, Delta and American airlines.
Thirty-two Wednesday flights had been canceled at Midway Airport, and more than 200 were delayed. The majority of the disrupted flights were operated by Southwest, which has a major hub at Midway.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation Tuesday for several Illinois counties, including Cook County, due to recent weather events. The proclamation allows local entities access to state resources and emergency personnel.
Due to the expected heavy rainfall, creeks and streams may rise out of their banks and flooding may occur in poor drainage and urban areas. Also, underpasses may flood, officials said.
Most of the storms Wednesday were expected to move swiftly through the area, but a couple were expected to carry heavy rainfall, officials said. Central Cook County had the highest threat of flash flooding Wednesday, officials said.
A flood watch for flash flooding means rapid-onset flooding is possible but not certain and is based upon the latest forecast. People along rivers, creeks and waterways should monitor the latest forecast and be prepared to take action if flooding develops, officials said.
Showers and thunderstorms are possible through Saturday.
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(The Courier-News contributed to this story.)
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