How Chicago-area storm chasers tracked Sunday's tornado in Naperville, Woodridge
The conditions were ripe for severe weather Sunday night as storm chaser Curtis Lergner and his team headed home after tracking a tornado in Iowa.
But he wasn't expecting to encounter another twister in DuPage County.
Accompanied by three others from Chicago & Midwest Storm Chasers, Lergner, the founder and CEO, was packing up his gear as the team drove back to the far South suburbs. They weren't planning to do any more chasing, he said, but he suggested trying to catch up with the storm line, thinking they could get footage of a shelf cloud or lightning.
As they moved east, they heard of a possible tornado in the Chicago suburbs but initially thought it was a false report, Lergner said. Then they noticed radar symbols indicating early signs of a tornado.
He started livestreaming their journey, urging his hundreds of viewers to seek shelter. When the second radar scan came in, he said, the storm chasers could see the twister forming — “and there's nothing in the storm blocking its path.”
“It had all the energy it needed,” Lergner said of the weather conditions. “It just kept going.”
The next radar scan showed debris flying the air, as the team raced toward Naperville and Woodridge.
They arrived to find police blocking some streets and fallen tree limbs and branches blocking others. Lergner reported widespread tree damage, downed power lines, structures that appeared to be in ruins.
“There wasn't enough help to go around,” he said.
Lergner and the other storm chasers — Aaron Michael Wiltgen of the South suburbs and siblings Nathan and Rebecca Voytovick of Michigan — parked in the Woodridge area and began walking through the destruction, hoping to lend a hand. They helped rescue several dogs from a pet day care and spent hours assisting residents who were affected, he said.
“If a tornado goes through a town, the chase is over,” he said. “I'm not going to keep going and filming. I'm going to stop and help.”
Lergner tracked the tornadoes in Coal City and the Rochelle area in 2015. But in the more than eight years since he started chasing storms, he said, he has never seen a twister rip through communities so close to the Chicago area.
“This is a whole different ballgame,” he said. “Naperville? Woodridge? We're talking about highly populated areas.”
Lergner's passion for severe weather and meteorology dates back to his childhood. While other kids grew up watching cartoons, he said, he would watch meteorologist Jim Cantore and weather expert Greg Forbes.
“I'm in it to learn, to see stuff, to help people out,” he said, noting he has chased twisters north to Canada and south to Texas.
So is he ever scared for his safety?
“I fear for other people's lives, not myself,” he said. “Other people come before me.”