A path of destruction in Mount Prospect was checked for evidence of tornado damage today. Investigators have determined the storm included an EF1 tornado.
UPDATE: Investigators with the National Weather Service determined Wednesday that a tornado in Mount Prospect traveled a path about 200 yards wide over two miles long, snapping trees at their trunks, uprooting trees, breaking branches and damaging roofs. The report coincides with damage that runs from Golf Road to Kensington Road near Route 83. MOUNT PROSPECT TORNADO PATH …
The June 21, 2011 (first day of summer) tornado was rated EF1 ( Enhanced Fujita scale), defined with winds of 86 to 110 miles per hour.
The National Weather Service sent damage assessment teams to Lake, Cook and DuPage counties to determine if a tornado touched down during violent storms Tuesday between 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
A similar damage pattern occurred in Downers Grove, where a tornado touched down near Sunnydale Park in Woodridge and headed northeast to 55th and Main streets in Downers Grove. The path of the Downer Grove June 21, 2011 tornado was also about 200 yards wide, with a path 2.1 miles long.
Damage teams were scheduled to examine neighborhoods in southeastern Lake County, northwestern Cook County, and DuPage County today. The worst damage in Mount Prospect is along a path on either side of Route 83 from Golf Road to Kensington Road. Serious damage including structural damage to a garage/shed on Fairview street from a large tree branch was reported, but just to the west near Prospect High School and Forest Avenue in Mount Prospect and Regency Park East in Arlington Heights there was very little damage. As neighborhood amateur observers walked through the area of Thatcher, Russell, Elmhurst Avenue, Pine Street, Isabella Street, Gregory, Emerson Street, Maple Street, Highland Street and other streets; there was some serious damage discovered. Some branches hung precariously over power lines. Other branches pierced roofs and attics.
Tornado damage video observed during daylight on Wednesday June 22, 2011.
[PHOTOGRAPHS LATER TODAY]
Neighbors were helping neighbors with broken roofs and clearance of tree branch debris … and whole trees that fell. A tall straight pine tree at least 40-feet tall was uprooted and fell pointing straight north with a large clump of sod and roots exposed in the front yard. One roof west of Main Street (Route 83) appeared to be pierced by debris, which raised some suspicion that may the storm did involve a tornado.
Expert damage reports will help the National Weather Service determine if any of the funnel clouds reported over Illinois Tuesday were actually tornadoes.
The southern area of the June 21, 2011 tornado path is in the same area where a microburst caused extensive damage in a more circular area near Golf Road and Elmhurst Road in August 2007 (See The Cardinal Mount Prospect Southside Hit Hard by Storm, Power Outage).
DAY 1 TORNADO OUTLOOK for June 21, 2011 valid 3 PM CDT to 7 PM. Most of northern Illinois and all of Chicagoland had been placed in a 5% tornado risk area at 3PM Tuesday, June 21, 2011 before the storms hit.
Both the National Weather Service and The Weather Channel had placed the Chicago area in a zone of increased chance tornadoes. According to the Weather Channel TOR:CON Index (Tornado Condition Index), Illinois had the highest risk, including all states considered at risk yesterday from Texas to Michigan and in between. The TOR:CON index was a 6, which meant there was a 60% chance of a tornado in a 50-mile radius.
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