After I came home from college classes around 4PM I had a chat on the phone when about 20 minutes or so into the conversation the tornado sirens were blasting loud. It looked pretty decent outside so I figured local service were testing them as they always do, hell no. I turned on the Weather Channel and there it was tornado warning in red. Ok so I've been here before living in Illinois and I wasn't too freaked. I went outside as I always do to check for the location of the tornado but i couldn't see anything. Then the sirens stopped all of a sudden so I figured nice, it's over with I can go eat dinner now. I come back inside and the tornado warning is now updated to have it out of the area. Then all of a sudden not just five minutes later the sirens blast again and this time a red flash interuption warning came up signaling that the tornado is in the local area. So I bolted back outside and seen nothing, and the sirens again stopped. I went over to chat with the neighbors who decided to also take a peak at what's going on. After pointing out what I know to them I seen a wall cloud forming about two miles south west of the street we were on and surely enough the sirens hit yet again so everyone went back inside. The new warning was set that there was a tornado heading on HW 80 towards Calumet and Indiana's East Chicago. Then another updated shown that a new formation of clouds that may produce tornadoes was heading towards Frankfort square (mind you all I live a stone's throw away from there). No sirens were going off and I was counting down the minutes until it was projected to arrive. The neighbors' son came home from painting and we had a chat outside since he and I both studied weather and can project patterns and formations before they hit. His sister joined us even though she was a bit freaked and lightning was flashing all over. I guess living here most of my life I'm pretty used to this type of weather, even though I hate it. After a chat and projecting cloud movement a flash of lightning hit the ground not 1/8 of a mile away from where we were standing. You could feel the heat and the flash blinded me for a few seconds. You can guess we all headed back in. Then it arrived, the storm was to hit the square right on time and it didn't miss it's appointment let me tell you. Thankfully however, the tornado that touched down didn't hit the square, instead it touched down just north of the area out of danger for the moment. I went back out during the sirens to watch that green and black sucker move down the highways into the south side of Cook County tearing apart whatever it touched as it ripped on by. Yet another tornadic experience in my life only now for the first time shared online. Hopefully you were all as freaked as the majority of people who live here are.
Yeah man, thanks. The worst thing isn't the tornado for me as it was the lightning strike. That was so damn close there was zero delay in the thunder that followed. Thankfully it didn't end up hitting one of us. But it's always a strange, cool, and sh** experience all the same when tornadoes hit. I'm sure others on here have experienced something close if not worse as well.
My sister's staying with some cousins in Geneva, near Chicago. Seeing as I have absolutely no knowledge of Illinois, I just wanted to know if it is anywhere near where all this occurred. Man, I have to admire your ability to stay calm during that. I'd have been scared shitless if I thought a tornado might hit my house.
Wow that's scary. Glad to know your all right. How often are there tornadoes around you area during the year?
First time this year from what I've been told by everyone since returning. Usually it's moderate around three or four times a year but two years ago in May we had seven out of ten days with tornadic weather. In which around 70 hit the mid-west, mostly in Illinois and northern Missouri. That was the one and only time I became really freaked because it was so constant you couldn't help but wonder when one will finally come to kill you or at least rip one of your loved ones away or all of your possesions turned to nothing. That's the worst thing to think of, that you would survive but you lost your other half, a best friend, or a family member like your mother. I've been pretty lucky so far, but my friend's dog one year wasn't so.
Well, I don't really know where Frankfort Square is, but I used to live in Illinois when I was really young. I lived there for like 4 or 5 years, and I have never experienced a tornado or a tornado siren
Good to see you're okay. Hopefully none of this stuff happens in New York. I'd probably be scared to death of a tornado.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting MrJ:</div><div class="quote_post">Good to see you're okay. Hopefully none of this stuff happens in New York. I'd probably be scared to death of a tornado.</div> Your such a sissy MrJ. jk. I thinking witnessing a tornado would be dangerous and exciting. Yea I know....I'm weird like that.
Depends where you lived in Illinois. Here's a map of where I am located around Chicago (the red star at Frankfort). Where the deadly tornadoes touched down (red dots) and their projected paths (black lines). Also the little black squares are other points where tornadoes may have touched down but did not cause much problem, at least from what I currently know of. Nah can't happen in NY, you don't have the same type of colliding mixtures of wind and humidity. For instance: When I returned home at 4PM it was a bit rainy and around 91?F with an increase in humidity at 70%. When I went outside during the first siren sounding around 20 minutes later the weather was very cool around 72?F and 98% humidity. That can't happen in your area like in central mid-west throughout the "Tornado Alley." This is caused by air coming from the gulf coast mixing with cool air dropping down from Canada. There is also one "tornado alley" located in Canada through parts of Ontario. This is not the same as the mid-west as you could guess, but they have had tornadoes touch down.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting NbaBaller:</div><div class="quote_post">Your such a sissy MrJ. jk. I thinking witnessing a tornado would be dangerous and exciting. Yea I know....I'm weird like that.</div> Shoot, I don't care about sissy; those things are serious
I live in Illinois, northwest though. We didn't see any rain here, unless the rain happened at night, but there wasn't much. Nothing that could have started a tornado. Glad to see your ok.
Yea, we've had tornado warnings up here in Southern Ontario a couple times this summer. But in Brampton, which is about 20 mins away from Toronto, the worst we've gotten is lightning/thunder and some really hard rain. I think up north a bit, the winds were getting pretty strong, but it wasn't as bad as what you described.
I'm glad we don't get tornados in Washington... things are really ominous and eerie to me. We get earthquakes though so it's even.
Thank goodness you're okay and others are too..That is one reason i wouldnt live in country..Tornades
