Monday was what I would consider a climatological pattern for tornadoes across eastern IA, northern IL, and southern Michigan. As is often the case with these setups, ongoing thunderstorms in the morning 'muddied' up the forecast (things were not clear even by mid-afternoon!), but severe thunderstorms eventually developed across the risk area by early evening. We targeted the DVN area, then slid a tad north a strengthening storm west of Clinton, IA. This storm morphed into a strong supercell after crossing the MS river, but poor visibility made identifying the storm structure difficult. This storm continued to grow into a large high-precipitation (HP) supercell before diving southeast across north-central IL and producing numerous tornadoes. We had several great views into the notch, but really could only confirm one touchdown of a tornado. We bailed on the storm near Mendota, IL as it was becoming dark/dangerous.
We (Matt Piechota and I) came back out to the hard hit Woodhaven Lakes area on the 23rd to conduct a storm survey on behalf of the National Weather Service in Chicago. We found several areas of EF2 damage in Woodhaven Lakes. Thankfully, only minor injuries and no fatalities were recorded here (likely because it was not a weekend). This was an extremely vulnerable campground area, and we found many campers crushed by large pine trees. Many of the residents again commented that the WEA cellphone warnings from the NWS helped alert them (with ample time) to the pending tornado. I consider this another huge success story for the region.
Survey Summary:
.TORNADO #5: WOODHAVEN LAKES/SUBLETTE TORNADO RATING: EF-2 PEAK WIND: 130 MPH PATH LENGTH: 7.8 MILES PATH WIDTH MAXIMUM: ONE HALF MILE FATALITIES: 0 INJURIES: 7 START DATE: JUN 22 2015 START TIME: 753 PM CDT START LOCATION: 4.0 MILES SOUTH OF AMBOY IL START LAT/LON: 41.6565 / -89.3213 END DATE: JUN 22 2015 END TIME: 811 PM CDT END LOCATION: 3.4 MILES SOUTHEAST OF SUBLETTE IL END LAT/LON: 41.6044 / -89.1874 SURVEY SUMMARY: VERY SIGNIFICANT TREE DAMAGE...WITH MANY LARGE TREES SNAPPED OR UPROOTED IN WOODHAVEN LAKES CAMPING RESORT AREA. SEVERAL OF THESE FELL ON RECREATIONAL VEHICLES. NOTES: THIS WAS THE STRONGEST TORNADO DAMAGE RATING WITHIN LEE COUNTY ITSELF SINCE AN F2 TORNADO ON JULY 8 1993. THE THREE TORNADOES IN LEE COUNTY WERE THE MOST IN ONE CALENDAR DAY IN THE TORNADO PERIOD OF RECORD /SINCE 1950/. GENSINI/PIECHOTA
Late morning tornado outlook and associated verification from the SPC |
200 image RADAR loop from KDVN |
Looking west near Sterling, IL |