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A look at the Sunday tornado numbers

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Illinois

* The Daily Herald looks at the numbers from Sunday’s tornadoes which tore through suburban Naperville and Woodridge…

• 19,000 feet: How high the tornado lofted debris above ground.
• 16.1 miles: Length of the tornado’s continuous track from when it touched down in the Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve in Naperville to when it lifted in Willow Springs.
• 230: Estimated number of homes with tornado damage.
• 20: Approximate number of minutes the tornado was on the ground from 11:05 p.m. to 11:25 p.m. Sunday. […]
• 140 miles per hour: An estimate of the strongest wind speeds.

* Tribune…

• There were at least two tornadoes in the Chicago area, and a third in northwest Indiana. The most destructive was the one that touched down in Naperville, Woodridge and Darien, and was categorized at an EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.
• As it approached the 1800 block of Princeton Circle in Naperville, the larger tornado likely had sustained wind speeds of about 140 mph. The same tornado was, at times, an EF-2, with winds as strong as 111 to 135 mph, but because it surpassed that in Naperville, the tornado was categorized as an EF-3.
• A second tornado touched down near Romeoville and Plainfield as an EF-0, meaning it had wind speeds of 65 to 85 mph. And late Tuesday, the weather service said another was confirmed in the South Haven, Indiana area. It, too, was an EF-0 and peaked at 75 mph.
• The EF-3 was the strongest tornado in the nine-county Chicago area since an EF-3 struck near Coal City in 2015. Sunday’s storm, on June 20, came two days shy of the sixth anniversary of that tornado.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jun 23, 21 @ 10:08 am

Comments

Not to minimize the loss to so many people, but it could have been much worse if it had not dissipated or had been in even more densely populated areas for most of its track. Certainly blew up quickly. Thank goodness for advances in detection and alert systems.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Wednesday, Jun 23, 21 @ 11:43 am
Huge props to the National Weather Service (which learned the lessons of the Plainfield tornado) and federal emergency services. Imagine a tornado this destructive coming through at 11 pm in a time BEFORE cell phones went bananas waking you up with incredibly noisy alerts.

This was a worst-case scenario for a tornado — EF3 in a major metro at 11 pm — and very few injuries (and no deaths still I think?) for the amount of property damage it did.

Comment by Suburban Mom Wednesday, Jun 23, 21 @ 1:02 pm
any word on Addison analysis? that was the first alert that sent people to basements and then the SW burbs alert barely happened before it hit down there. happy not too many were injured.

Comment by Amalia Wednesday, Jun 23, 21 @ 1:57 pm