No joke, I've just seen the information and pictures on the Weather Channel. Right now we're having one of the worst tornado outbreaks in US history through Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, and other states. The city of Chicago actually had a warning issued and all my life here I'd never seen the warning of "If you live in a highrise keep away from windows and head into the strongest interior of the building, now!" 24 tornadoes have touched down in the past two hours and more are expected overnight leading into tomorrow. This storm is really strange because not only has there been a cool humid front dropping from Canada mixing with a dry heat rising from the Gulf but a 100 mph Low pressure front has also mixed in making this storm basically sit around the same area. As if the storm is just sitting over us. They also had to release on radar a white shadded area instead of red for severe because the cells are just so strong. This one may break records. Flooding is also severe with 4 to 5 inches the last two hours in towns like Bartlett and West Chicago. 294 heading north into O'Hare Airport traffic basically had shut down at one point because there was reported absolute zero visability. They reported people just basically stopped driving. Not very fun to sit on the highway knowing there's a tornado coming your way. Right now it is calm, but I don't feel much like experiencing my 36th tornado tonight or tomorrow. I'm growing quite sick of it.
Murphysboro has been hit by the worst tornados in history. Most notably in 1925 the "Tri-State Tornado" which killed nearly 700 people ripping through three states. Nearly 300 people were killed in Murphysboro alone. When they rebuilt the town, again in the 1950's the town was demolished by another F5. Last night however didn't cause too much damage and no deaths were reported, thankfully.
