Storms down trees, power lines in McHenry County, causing widespread outages

McHenry County again was hit by strong weather with another round of storms, bringing down trees and power lines Tuesday night, one day after a tornado touched down.

As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, Lake in the Hills police reported several road closures from downed trees. Reports into the National Weather Service indicated trees were down in Crystal Lake, Marengo and Bull Valley with a 60 mph wind gust measured near Harvard.

ComEd reported over 27,000 people were without power as of 8 p.m. Tuesday throughout McHenry County. That includes over 3,000 people in Crystal Lake and Lake in the Hills, about 2,600 in McHenry, and over 1,500 in Woodstock. More than 175,000 people throughout the Chicago area were without power as of 8:30 p.m.

The tornado that hit McHenry on Monday evening was one of at least seven tornadoes that occurred across northern Illinois, the National Weather Service confirmed Tuesday evening.

The tornado in McHenry was classified as EF-1, a “moderate” tornado with wind speeds of 86 to 110 mph, according to the National Weather Service. At least two other tornadoes of that class also touched down as part of Monday’s storm system – one in DeKalb County that touched down in Sycamore and continued to Virgil and another in Burlington in Kane County.

The classification came after National Weather Service survey teams went out to the scenes of reported tornadoes Tuesday morning, a Romeoville-based National Weather Service meteorologist said.

Two more tornadoes – one north of Esmond and another south of Esmond – were classified as EF-0, which the National Weather Service describes as a “gale” with winds of 65 to 85 mph, and two more – one south of Kirkland and another at Paw Paw – were classified as EF-U, meaning the tornadoes did not produce any damage that could be used to estimate wind speed.

“The environment overall across northern Illinois [Monday evening] was favorable for the development of tornadoes,” meteorologist Rafal Ogorek said Tuesday morning.

[ National Weather Service confirms multiple tornadoes in DeKalb County, one in Kane County ]

No injuries had been reported in connection with the possible tornado, according to McHenry police and the president of the Evergreen Park Homeowner’s Association where the storm caused damage.

The McHenry neighborhood – a collection of townhomes on Evergreen Circle – saw roofing and siding stripped from a few units and fencing and a mature tree torn down.

One Evergreen Circle resident, Tim Schneider, told the Northwest Herald that he was upstairs in his home when he heard the sound of rain hitting the window intensify and looked outside.

He said he saw “a cloud of debris” and ran downstairs to the first floor as the townhomes do not have basements. He said he thought about trying to record it on his phone’s camera, but then decided to call emergency dispatchers to report a possible tornado.

“I just happened to look out to the west, and saw debris in the air, shingles in the air,” Schneider said. “By the time I got downstairs, I heard like a car wash. When the rubber things are hitting your car, that’s what it sounded like. I looked out my back window, and I just saw the funnel going up and the rotating wall cloud, and grabbed my phone and dialed 911 and called it in.”

[ Storm that brought ‘cloud of debris’ damages McHenry townhomes ]

More severe weather was possible Tuesday evening, the National Weather Service advised, and a heat advisory was issued Tuesday for all of Illinois.

A severe thunderstorm watch was issued for all of northern Illinois about 4 p.m. Tuesday and was scheduled to last until 10 p.m. High winds up to 75 mph, enough to uproot trees, was the primary threat, along with ping pong ball-sized hail and frequent lightning.

Flooding from torrential rains and a brief tornado also could not be ruled out, according to the National Weather Service.

The heat advisory for northern Illinois ran noon through 7 p.m. Tuesday with dangerous heat index values up to 110 expected, the National Weather Service said. Another one is predicted for Wednesday with a daytime high of 90 degrees forecasted and heat index values as high as 101.

Hot temperatures and high humidity can cause heat illnesses to occur in fewer than a half hour when in direct sunlight.

“We’re certainly messaging everybody to take proper heat precautions, drink a lot of water, stay in the shade,” Ogorek said.

Ogorek said he didn’t think Tuesday’s storm would be a repeat of Monday night’s severe weather, however.

“We’re thinking more so they’re going to be thunderstorms that form across eastern Iowa, southern Wisconsin and thunderstorms or a line of thunderstorms could potentially move through area,” Ogorek said. “There’s still some uncertainty of where that will track, its possible the area is missed entirely, but if not, it’s possible that you can see damaging winds. That would be primary threat, but we can’t rule out potential brief tornado.”

Rain and thunderstorms could continue into Wednesday with a 50% chance during the day and becoming likelier overnight, mainly before 1 a.m., according to the National Weather Service forecast.

Some of the daytime storms could produce heavy rain and winds of 10 to 20 mph with gusts as high as 30 mph are predicted. The evening could seen new rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, with higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.