A line of severe storms swept through the Chicago area, prompting Tornado Warnings for much of the city and surrounding suburbs.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued the first Tornado Warnings around 9:00 pm for western suburbs like Aurora, Oswego, DuPage County, and Naperville as radar detected signs of rotation. By 9:30 pm, the warnings were extended to encompass all of Chicago.
Alarmingly, observers at both Chicago Midway and O'Hare International airports reported sightings of possible tornadoes near the facilities. Footage from airport webcams captured power flashes, suggesting the presence of tornadoes or destructive wind gusts.
A peak wind gust of 75 mph was recorded at O'Hare Airport, highlighting the strength of the storm. Due to the extensive rotation detected on radar, making it difficult to pinpoint individual tornadoes, the NWS issued a city-wide Tornado Warning just before 10:00 pm CT.
In the aftermath, the NWS is planning damage surveys in nearly 30 locations across the affected areas to determine the extent of the damage and whether tornadoes were definitively responsible.
