Chicago weather: Monday EF-0 tornado confirmed in Roselle, heat hitting records
A low-grade tornado touched down during the supercell storm that left thousands across Chicagoland without power, the National Weather Service confirmed.
The EF-0 tornado dropped in the south side of Schaumburg before taking a 2-mile path southeast and lifting in Roselle, meteorologist Kevin Doom said. The tornado’s estimated 80 mph winds caused “mostly just tree damage,” he added.
“It did go through an area with homes and other structures that it could have damaged if it had been stronger,” Doom said.
A tornado is graded EF-0, considered weak, if damage surveys suggest it had wind speeds under 85 mph.
Some of the storm’s straight-line winds were more powerful than the tornado, he said. The wind gusted at 84 mph at O’Hare International Airport Monday and turned over several planes at Schaumburg Regional Airport. It also tore off the roof of a three-story apartment building near Maywood and toppled hundreds of trees, leading to power outages that affected thousands.
The “very, very intense” storm stood out for its height, an estimated 60,000 to 65,000 feet, Doom said. “This storm was within the upper echelon of storm tops for mid-latitude, nontropical thunderstorms,” the National Weather Service wrote in a statement.
Temperatures for Tuesday and Wednesday were in the upper echelon too.
Wednesday’s high temperature reached 96 degrees at O’Hare, the National Weather Service’s official record site, marking the hottest June 15 since 1871, said Brian Leatherwood, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chicago. The previous daily record was 94 degrees at O’Hare in 1994.
And at the airport in Rockford, where official records are kept, the weather service recorded a high of 97, also breaking the daily record of 95 degrees from 1994.
“Almost every site was above whatever their daily record had been in the past,” Leatherwood said.
At Midway, temperatures reached 100 degrees on Wednesday, he said.
A cool front coming into the area Wednesday night was expected to bring Chicago relief, with temperatures back down to the 80s and low 90s and decrease humidity. But it’ll bring storms first. With potential winds of up to 60 mph, meteorologists were expecting rain and thunderstorms to possibly hit Chicago after 8 p.m. Wednesday.
“The big thing is the humidity is going to drop heavily, which is going to be a huge relief. So, it’s actually going to feel like what the thermometer reads for the first time in several days,” Doom said.
Temperatures are expected to cool down into the 70s this weekend.
Stephanie Casanova contributed.
