Severe thunderstorms, tornadoes reported across Northern Illinois
Severe thunderstorms pummeled parts of Northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana, including a few potential tornado touchdowns across Chicago-area suburbs, the National Weather Service reported Tuesday night.
Damaging wind gusts up to 70 mph and heavy rains blew through the region, the weather service reported.
Areas most at risk of tornadoes touching down by early evening were as far north as Waukegan, west to Elgin and as far south as Joliet and Valparaiso, Indiana.
There also were reports of hail across the region.
There were potential tornadoes in and around south central DeKalb and the DeKalb/Kane County border. Possible tornado damage was reported north of Sugar Grove and Aurora, said Lee Carlaw, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville.
“We got funnel cloud reports across the Geneva area, West Chicago in DuPage and eastern Kane County,” Carlaw said.
There also is a report of a possible tornado touching down between Inverness and South Barrington, he added.
“It is bearing down on downtown Chicago as we speak and the rest of southern Cook County,” he said around 8:15 p.m.
The onslaught was expected to continue until 9 p.m. and push out onto the lake, with an expected rapid temperature drop falling into the 30s and 40s overnight, he said.
The official high wind speed at O’Hare International Airport was 41 mph, but a private weather station in northern Palatine registered gusts at more than 80 mph at one point, NWS meteorologists said.
Mundelein Fire Department crews with a ladder truck from Round Lake were on the scene of a partial wall collapse at an apartment building in the 30 block of Washington Boulevard. Police were asked to help evacuate residents and a MABAS Box Alarm was requested calling multiple fire departments to respond.
No injuries were reported, but big trees were down in the yard and huge boards from the building were blown into the street. It is unclear whether the collapse was storm related.
Golf ball-sized hail was reported in Romeoville.
Minor flight disruptions were reported at both Chicago-area airports.
Tornado damage was reported at Waubonsee Community College, with trees down, light poles smashed, and cars turned around, reported Bob Waszak@nilwxreports.
A tornado was confirmed in Batavia and around North Aurora and hail hitting many communities in western Kane after 7 p.m.
Residents in the Batavia area posted on social media pages reports of hail and high winds.
Kane County Emergency Management Services were assessing damages, but reported downed trees and power lines in the Sugar Grove area.
ComEd reported several outages in Kane County. As of 8 p.m., they reported outages affecting 54 customers in Elgin, 94 customers in Batavia, more than 500 in Sugar Grove and scattered outages around Elburn affecting more than 500 customers. View the outage map on ComEd’s website for current reports.
About 108 active power outages were reported around 10 p.m. throughout the ComEd system, affecting about 4,600 customers.
• Shaw Local News Network and Daily Herald staff writers Jake Griffin and John Starks contributed to this report.