Elmo9607
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2010
- Messages
- 656
Was anyone else affected by the tornadoes in north central Illinois last night?
I live in Marseilles, IL and my chase partners and I were out on I39 heading south towards Lostant. We saw the storm coming towards 39 and headed out of the way until it crossed the highway. We then swung around southeast of it and got behind it.
We saw it pass over Streator, IL (at that point we knew it had went tornadic) and were speeding after a different storm towards Dwight, IL. (about 30 miles away)
It was dark at this point and we were waiting for lightning flashes to illuminate the funnel cloud. At that point, we called it in the the NWS. Once we saw the power flashes (transformers blowing...giving off a very bright blue light) we could see the funnel clearly and knew it was on the ground. It was huge!
We followed it for awhile into Dwight, but lost the tornado and decided to turn around. We then sped towards Streator to see the damage and see if anyone needed help. It was unreal...I had never seen anything like it in my life.
I'm very suprised nobody was killed last night. We talked to some of the people who lived there, and they said that one minute it was fine outside, the next minute there was a tornado, and the next minute it was gone.
The storms came on so strong and so fast...seemed like as soon as they formed, they were tornadic. We were surrounded by tornado warnings, and plenty of other chasers. The adrenaline rush from seeing my first tornado was intense, but it was also a scary and humbling experience, especially knowing that they were SO close to home. And as they always say...things can be replaced, but people cant, and we are all extremely thankful that as of today, nobody has died in Illinois as a result of these storms.
As of today, there is one serious injury in Dwight and numerous injuries in Streator, all non-serious. The tornado in Streator was rated at an EF2 with winds of over 111 mph. There were also tornadoes in Lostant, Peoria, Elmwood, Henry, Magonlia, Germantown Hills, Herscher, St. Anne, and Abingdon...all in Illinois.
I live in Marseilles, IL and my chase partners and I were out on I39 heading south towards Lostant. We saw the storm coming towards 39 and headed out of the way until it crossed the highway. We then swung around southeast of it and got behind it.
We saw it pass over Streator, IL (at that point we knew it had went tornadic) and were speeding after a different storm towards Dwight, IL. (about 30 miles away)
It was dark at this point and we were waiting for lightning flashes to illuminate the funnel cloud. At that point, we called it in the the NWS. Once we saw the power flashes (transformers blowing...giving off a very bright blue light) we could see the funnel clearly and knew it was on the ground. It was huge!
We followed it for awhile into Dwight, but lost the tornado and decided to turn around. We then sped towards Streator to see the damage and see if anyone needed help. It was unreal...I had never seen anything like it in my life.
I'm very suprised nobody was killed last night. We talked to some of the people who lived there, and they said that one minute it was fine outside, the next minute there was a tornado, and the next minute it was gone. The storms came on so strong and so fast...seemed like as soon as they formed, they were tornadic. We were surrounded by tornado warnings, and plenty of other chasers. The adrenaline rush from seeing my first tornado was intense, but it was also a scary and humbling experience, especially knowing that they were SO close to home. And as they always say...things can be replaced, but people cant, and we are all extremely thankful that as of today, nobody has died in Illinois as a result of these storms.
As of today, there is one serious injury in Dwight and numerous injuries in Streator, all non-serious. The tornado in Streator was rated at an EF2 with winds of over 111 mph. There were also tornadoes in Lostant, Peoria, Elmwood, Henry, Magonlia, Germantown Hills, Herscher, St. Anne, and Abingdon...all in Illinois.
