Tuesday’s severe weather outbreak in the Chicago area spawned golf ball-size hail and several tornado touchdowns, but did any of those occur in the city itself?
Damage assessments are currently underway, according to the National Weather Service, but as of now there were no reports from trained weather spotters of any touchdown in Chicago itself.
Multiple wind gusts in excess of 50 miles per hour were indeed recorded at multiple locations, including in Lakeview, in the Loop and along the shores of Lake Michigan, but it is not believed at this time that those were the results of tornadoes.
The closest reported tornado to the city occurred at approximately 7:36 p.m., when it is believed a twister touched down near Inverness in the northwest suburbs.
That reported tornado is believed to have caused damage to the roof of at least one home and a gazebo near Freeman Road and Huntington Boulevard in suburban Hoffman Estates, trained weather spotters said.
In nearby Palatine, there were reported of a wind gust of 82 miles per hour, but it is unclear if those were straight-line winds or winds from a tornado.
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NWS officials are conducting aerial and ground-based surveys to determine whether a tornado touched down, and how long it was on the ground.
There were at least three other reports of tornado touchdowns from trained weather spotters in the Chicago area Tuesday. The first occurred at approximately 6:30 p.m. in a rural area of DeKalb County near Waterman, but there were no immediate reports of damage.
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A second tornado was reported at approximately 6:57 p.m. near Big Rock and Hinckley in Kane County. No damage was immediately reported from that tornado either, officials said.
A tornado that did reportedly cause damage touched down near Sugar Grove in Kane County at approximately 7:05 p.m. There were multiple reports of funnel clouds around that time, and there was damage reported at Waubonsee Community College, with trees, power poles and fencing all being damaged on the campus.
At approximately 7:15 p.m. a mobile office trailer near a Jewel-Osco in Kane County’s Batavia was flipped on its side, along with shopping cart corrals being tossed about in what was believed to be tornado-related winds.
One other funnel cloud that the NWS will look into was reported near Gary, Indiana at approximately 9:17 p.m. It is believed that funnel touched down in Lake Michigan to form a waterspout, but it is unclear if it made its way onto land at any point.
Another funnel cloud was spotted near Sublette, but it's unclear whether that tornado touched down, with NWS officials conducting damage assessments.
Damage assessments will continue through the day in the suburbs, and we will provide updates if NWS officials confirm tornado touchdowns in those areas.
There was significant damage reported in multiple areas of Lake County as well, with an apartment building badly damaged in Mundelein and small trees snapped in half in Vernon Hills. It is unclear if that damage is tornado-related, and investigations remain underway.
