Chicago, IL

Weather Forecast Office

July 14-15, 2024: Line of Storms Produces Swaths of Wind Damage and Embedded Tornadoes

NOTE: This page is still under construction and will be updated over the next couple of days as we continue to conduct our post-event analysis. We thank you for your patience!

Overview
Tornadoes
Storm Reports
Rainfall
Photos
Radar
Additional Info

Overview

Page last updated: 5:20 PM CDT Wednesday, July 17

A line of thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois and northwest Indiana during the night of Sunday, July 14, producing swaths of wind damage, several embedded tornadoes, and flash flooding.

As of the evening of July 16th, a total of 6 tornadoes have been confirmed in the NWS Chicago forecast area from this event. See the tornadoes tab for more information.
- Additional damage assessments are still being conducted in DeKalb and Kane counties, so this number may still increase.

Torrential rainfall also led to flash flooding occurring in the area, including in the city of Rockford, which saw considerable flash flooding for the second night in a row.

Tornadoes

Tornado Summary Graphic

Downloadable KMZ File with All Tornado Tracks (To Be Added Later)

Downloadable Shapefile with All Tornado Tracks (To Be Added Later)

Below is a summary of all of the NWS damage survey findings in the NWS Chicago forecast area from this severe weather event. An interactive map with all of this information can be found on our Damage Assessment Toolkit Viewer website (to see the data from this event, make sure that the date range in the top right corner includes this event's date). Instructions for how to download survey data (KMZ files and shapefiles) are available here.

1.) Esmond Tornado

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Summary:

A tornado began just southwest of Esmond and tracked southeast, lifting east of McQueen Road. Tree and crop damage occurred along the path of the tornado, and one outbuilding was destroyed as well.

2.) Elburn Tornado

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Summary:

An EF-1 tornado with peak winds of 100 mph, path length of 5.6 miles and maximum width of 100 yards started on the northwest side of Elburn and lifted before Peck road. Damage along the path of the tornado consisted of downed trees and damage to farm buildings. A metal farm building was destroyed at the Hickory Lane Equestrian Center.

3.) St. Charles Tornado

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Summary:

As strong straight-line winds were entering St. Charles, a brief EF-0 tornado spun up just north of Route 38 east of Peck Road. The tornado tracked southeastward to just southeast of the intersection of Randall Road and Route 38, causing roof damage to a Metro Self Storage building, damaging a greenhouse and tossing shopping cart corrals around at a Meijer, knocking over a light pole, and snapping and uprooting multiple trees. Damage beyond the Tri-City Shopping Center then appeared to transition to straight-line wind damage.

4.) La Grange - Cicero Tornado

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Summary:

An EF-0 tornado began in La Grange and tracked through Brookfield, Riverside, and Berwyn before ending in Cicero. Damage along the tornado`s path was entirely confined to trees.

5.) Midway Airport to Kenwood Tornado

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Summary:

An EF-0 tornado began just west of Midway Airport and tracked over the airport, where it displaced a 737 airplane, slamming it into a jet bridge. The tornado continued east-northeastward through the West Elsdon, Gage Park, New City, and Fuller Park community areas of Chicago, where it primarily caused tree and minor roof damage to homes. The tornado then crossed I-90/I-94, producing additional instances of tree damage as it tracked through the Grand Boulevard and Kenwood community areas before it tracked out over Lake Michigan.

6.) Englewood to Jackson Park Tornado

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Summary:

An EF-0 tornado began near Englewood STEM High School and tracked east-northeastward through the south side of Chicago before moving over Lake Michigan at Jackson Park. The tornado primarily caused tree damage along its 3.6 mile long track, though it also knocked over a train car and caused some minor roof damage as well.

The Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories:

EF0 Weak 65-85 mph	EF1 Moderate 86-110 mph	EF2 Significant 111-135 mph	EF3 Severe 136-165 mph	EF4 Extreme 166-200 mph	EF5 Catastrophic 200+ mph

When a tornado is known to have occurred but does not cause damage to any qualified damage indicators, or if the only damage is located in an area that is inaccessible to NWS storm survey personnel, then a tornado may be assigned the EF-Unknown (EF-U) rating.

Storm Reports

Preliminary Map of Storm Reports

Preliminary Storm Report Map

Preliminary National Storm Reports

Interactive Map of Preliminary Storm Reports

To be added later...

Rainfall

Map of Approximate Rainfall Totals

To be added later...

Photos


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(To be added later). Photo courtesy of [name].	(To be added later). Photo courtesy of [name].	(To be added later). Photo courtesy of [name].

Radar

To be added later.

Additional Information

Links:

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Additional recaps can be found on the NWS Chicago Past Events Page