Illinois
The Tornado State: Illinois emerges as new hot spot for twisters, defying traditional patterns
Illinois emerges as new hot spot for tornadoes
The Prairie State could soon be known as the tornado state. So far this year, Illinois has seen the most tornadoes in the United States, and the most severe weather events.
CHICAGO – The Prairie State could soon be known as the tornado state. So far this year, Illinois has seen the most tornadoes in the United States, and the most severe weather events.
In a FOX 32 special report, chief meteorologist Emily Wahls explains what’s going on.
There’s a new trend storm chasers are following. It shows tornado alley isn’t the only hot spot for this major weather event.
“One of the things that we’re noticing is that there’s been a decreasing trend, a decreasing number of tornados in the Great Plains and an increase in places further to the east, and the mid-south and portions of the Midwest,” said Dr. Victor Gensini, associate professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University.
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Gensini is also a storm chaser and one of the first meteorologists to report a shift in the frequency of where tornadoes are touching down in the U.S.
He and a team of other weather experts first noticed this trend in 2018. Five years later, they say it’s still swirling.
“So it’s a very interesting trend and then the issue becomes how to explain that trend,” Gensini said.
“We don’t know. We think some of it’s climate change. We think some it is the central plains drying out, becoming a more desert like, arid climate. And places further to the west see more rainfall.”
The shift Gensini helped discover focuses on the number of EF-2 and stronger tornadoes now occurring outside the traditional tornado alley. Places like northern Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas.
“So when a tornado happens in these areas east of the Mississippi River, we see more impact. More hazards, right? Because there’s more people, there’s more targets, there’s more assets for these storms to hit,” he said.
The tornado that tore through suburban Chicago in June 2021 was an EF-3. It left a heavy trail of destruction in Woodridge and Naperville.
“The devastation here is unbelievable. It’s one of those things you don’t expect it in your neighborhood,” one Woodridge resident said at the time.
For Illinois, Gensini says it’s seeing an increase of about three more strong tornadoes every decade.
“Tornados are relatively rare. It’s very rare to be hit by a tornado in downtown Chicago, but when you start aggregating over a decade, an increase in two or three or four in a decade is a pretty big increase,” Gensini said.
What is really noticeable in Illinois, especially this year, is more EF-0 and EF-1 tornadoes.
“They can still cause loss of life and property. In fact, there’s several documented cases of EF-0 and 1’s causing causalities,” Gensini said.
A March 31 storm brought 16 low-level tornadoes across northern Illinois. All but one were EF-1’s or EF-0’s.
Four people died and dozens were injured. That includes at least 40 concert goers who were at the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere when an EF-1 caused the roof to collapse.
“They acted quickly to remove debris from people, because people were trapped under debris,” said Dan Zaccard, Boone County emergency management director.
So far this year, Illinois has seen at least 100 tornadoes on all levels of the Enhanced Fujita Scale. That’s nearly double the number the state typically sees, according to the National Weather Service.
While the number of tornadoes we see each year is expected to keep increasing, Gensini says climate change will only be partly to blame.
“There’s more assets for these storms to hit. So as we go forward over the next 50 to 100 years, we will see, regardless of climate change, more and more tornado disasters because of this increase in the human footprint, in the human-built environment,” he said.
Tornado rips roof off theater in Belvidere, Illinois, killing one person and leaving dozens injured
The cleanup began on Saturday after a tornado ripped the roof off the Apollo Theater in Belvidere, Illinois. One person was killed and dozens of others injured.
Case in point, Gensini and his fellow researchers estimate if a tornado today took the same track as one did in 1990 through Plainfield, the damage would be ten times worse.
So if there are more existing homes and more low-level tornadoes happening, what can you do to make your house tornado resistant?
“One of the biggest things people can do right off the bat is look at their garage door,” said University of Illinois climate specialist Duane Friend. “The garage is one of the most susceptible areas on a house.”
Friend says garage doors can be the first point to give way on a house during a tornado because heavy winds can access it pretty easily.
That’s why he says having a garage door that is insulated is a good idea. That type of door is heavier and less likely to give way to strong winds. Friend also says there are “hurricane proof” garage doors.
“The roof would be the second thing that can go, and what will happen with the garage, as the garage fills up with air and that pressure increases, that’s when the roof on the garage goes off,” Friend said.
“The good news is roofs have to be replaced on a regular basis. Anyway, the typical design life of a roof is maybe 15 to 25 years,” said Marc Levitan, lead researcher with the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program.
Levitan says when it’s time to replace your roof, you should ask your contractor about taking these steps.
“So we’re going to do two things. We’re going to put ring shank nails to hold the roof deck down better and we’re going to put “peel and seal” tape on all of the joints,” he said.
Levitan says that tape will help keep water from damaging your roof.
If possible, Levitan also suggests having your contractor use hurricane clips to reinforce the connection between the rafters and the top of the wall.
Despite all that, Gensini says the most important tornado safety step you can take is this.
“I think it’s really prepping yourself before prepping your home that really is the most important. Have a way to receive watches and warnings and have a plan of action. You can’t wait for the house to be falling down around you before you take action. You need to know what to do when these situations occur,” Gensini said.
While we tend to focus a lot on tornadoes happening, especially during severe weather season – April to June — the reality is a tornado can happen anywhere in the U.S., and it can happen at any time of the year.
For more information on how to make your house tornado resistant, visit the University of Illinois’ Windstorm Mitigation Manual.
CHICAGO (CBS) — The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday warned stores and restaurants around the country not to sell or serve oysters from British Columbia, Canada, that may be contaminated with the norovirus.
Illinois was among the states where the oysters were sold. They were also sold in Arizona, California, Colorado, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
The oysters were sold as Fanny Bay, Buckley Bay, and Royal Miyagi.
The oysters were harvested between Dec. 1 and Dec. 9 from growing areas BC 14-8, Landfiles (LF) # 1413888, 1409240, 1402294, 1409454, 1402193, 1402293, 1402060, and growing area BC 14-15, LF # 249854.
Symptoms of norovirus include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and stomach cramps. A fever may also develop.
Restaurants and retailers that have the oysters should throw them away, or return them to their distributor to be destroyed. The FDA also advised that shellfish can be a source of pathogens more generally, and the risk of cross-contamination of food processing equipment and the food processing environment must be averted.
What’s New
President-elect Donald Trump has been urged by former adviser Roger Stone follow up on his settled defamation lawsuit against ABC News by suing Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker for calling him a “rapist.”
“I certainly hope the president will file this lawsuit and based on the precedent set by his lawsuit against ABC, I believe that he would get a judgment against JB Pritzker,” Stone said in a text message to Newsweek on Wednesday.
Newsweek reached out for comment to the offices of Trump and Pritzker via email on Wednesday.
Why It Matters
ABC News recently agreed to apologize and pay $15 million toward Trump’s future presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos for incorrectly saying on air that a jury found Trump civilly liable for rape.
A jury found Trump civilly liable last year for sexually abusing former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and defaming her by denying that an assault took place, although the judge presiding over the trial later said that Trump’s actions met “the meaning of ‘rape’ in common modern parlance.”
NICK OXFORD/AFP; Oleg Nikishin; Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative
What To Know
While sharing an article on former Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich calling for Trump to sue Pritzker, Stone wrote the following on X, formerly Twitter, earlier on Wednesday: “President Trump should sue billionaire Governor JD [sic] Pritzker who falsely called him a rapist.”
Pritzker referred to Trump as an “adjudicated rapist” on multiple occasions while acting as a surrogate for the Democratic presidential campaigns of President Joe Biden and later Vice President Kamala Harris over the summer.
“Donald Trump is a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist and a congenital liar,” Pritzker said during a speech in June. “He’s a racist, sexist, misogynistic narcissist who wants to use the levers of power to enrich himself and punish anyone who dares speak a word against him.”
What People Are Saying
Blagojevich—an outspoken Trump supporter since being granted clemency by the then-president in 2020 after serving several years in federal prison on corruption charges—called for Trump to follow up his ABC suit by taking similar legal action against Pritzker in a post to X on Monday.
“Now that Trump successfully won his defamation case against ABC for calling him a ‘rapist,’ when will he sue Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker for repeatedly lying & calling him the same thing?” Blagojevich wrote.
What Happens Next
While it is unclear whether Trump intends to file a lawsuit against Pritzker, the former and future president has seemingly started a legal revenge campaign against critics and perceived political enemies before his inauguration on January 20.
Trump filed a lawsuit on Monday against retired pollster J. Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register and its parent company Gannett for what he alleges was “brazen election interference” for publishing a poll that showed Harris with a narrow lead in The Hawkeye State shortly before the election.
CHICAGO – The prosecution rested its case in the federal corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan on Wednesday.
The trial has been going on for several weeks as jurors have heard from former aides, business executives, elected officials, and others about Madigan’s power and influence in state government and his alleged schemes to benefit himself and his allies.
Attorneys are still expected to give their closing arguments in the coming days before jurors will be left to decide on a verdict.
The charges
Madigan, the longest-serving legislative leader in American history, was charged in a 23-count indictment for bribery, racketeering, wire fraud, and other crimes.
He’s been accused of using his influence as Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and as head of the state’s Democratic Party to amass more power and benefit his private tax law practice.
Among other schemes, Madigan is accused of using his influence in government to pass legislation favorable to certain companies like Commonwealth Edison, the electric utility company, in exchange for benefits like no-show jobs and internships for his allies.
“When Madigan saw an opportunity to enrich himself, he took it,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker told the jurors.
Madigan has denied wrongdoing.
His longtime confidant Michael McClain is also standing trial, though he was already convicted in a separate but related bribery conspiracy case last year involving ComEd.
Secret recordings
Prosecutors have played secret recordings made by witnesses like former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis, who led the powerful Zoning Committee.
During more than 23 hours of testimony, Solid told jurors that federal agents approached him in 2016, and he agreed to cooperate to avoid prison time for admitted wrongdoing, including bribery. He met with Madigan about projects in his ward as the former speaker sought business for his tax firm.
Defense attorneys argued Solis was an unreliable witness for past financial wrongdoing and misspending campaign funds.
Solis said Madigan’s influence would be helpful to him, so he wanted to “curry favor” with the powerful speaker by introducing him to real estate developers whom he could recruit as clients.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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