Tornado damages trees, shopping center roof in Naperville as severe weather rakes suburbs
No injuries were reported Saturday after a tornado struck southern Naperville.
The National Weather Service reported on Twitter that there was a tornado near 95th Street and Route 59.
Naperville spokeswoman Kelley Munch said police received an alert from a business alarm around 5:45 a.m. in a shopping center at that intersection.
The building sustained roof damage.
People also reported damage to trees. About 250 city electric customers lost power near Washington Street and Gardner Road for about 80 minutes due to branches falling on electrical lines. Power was restored by 7 a.m., Munch said.
NWS preliminarily gave the twister the weakest EF-0 rating with maximum wind speeds of 80 mph.
The weather service also reported a second tornado, which landed in Crest Hill and traveled to the north side of Joliet before lifting off. It also was an EF-0 tornado, with max wind speeds of 70 mph.
Later in the morning, the weather service reported hail falling in southern DuPage and northern Will counties.
Weather.gov reported that from 5 to 11 a.m., 1.67 inches of rain was recorded at the Aurora Municipal Airport in Sugar Grove and 1.03 inches at the DuPage County Airport in West Chicago.
Other suburbs also reported an extreme amount of rainfall. Libertyville had 6.08 inches of rain as of Saturday night, Gurnee close to 5 inches, Grayslake with 4.33 inches and Naperville with about 3.8 inches.
Stormy weather is expected to continue.
NWS has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for several northern counties in Illinois, including Lake and McHenry, until 11 p.m. Saturday night. The watch also includes Lake Michigan from Winthrop Harbor to mid-lake and Wilmette Harbor.
Additionally, a thunderstorm complex was organizing across Iowa and Minnesota early Saturday afternoon and is expected to surge south and east toward northern Illinois around 6 or 7 p.m., NWS reported.
The primary corridor of concern is along and north of Interstate 80, with severe hazards possible, including destructive straight line winds in excess of 70 mph, a few brief tornadoes, and hail. It will not take much rainfall to cause additional flash flooding for areas that received heavy rain last night, according to NWS. A flash flood warning or watch is in effect for parts of northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana.