The Chicago area saw at least 22 confirmed tornadoes Monday as a derecho moved across the region, taking just one night to surpass the number of twisters typically recorded in a year, the National Weather Service said.
The tally could increase as the weather service investigations continue, with meteorologists now studying satellite footage to confirm tornadoes. Typically, the area covered by the weather service's Chicago office experiences between 16 and 20 twisters in a year, according to meteorologist David King.
Even though most of the tornadoes were relatively low on the Enhanced Futija Scale, or EF Scale, King emphasized that they can still be damaging.
"Even if winds are quote-unquote 'only' 65 miles per hour, that's still impactful," King said. "Saying that we got lucky is perhaps in the broader context ... but I always try to remember it only takes one person to have their entire life changed by a weather event."
Of the 22 tornadoes Monday, 12 were recorded as an EF-0, nine were EF-1 and one was a reported EF-2. An EF-0 tornado has sustained winds of 65-85 mph. An EF-1 has winds of 86-110. An EF-2 has winds of 111-135 mph.
The storm wreaked havoc on power lines throughout the area, with more than 3,800 homes and businesses still without electricity Friday afternoon, according to ComEd's outage map. During the storms, outages peaked at at least 225,000 customers without power.
Near Channahon, Interstate 55 was closed in both directions until Thursday after cars got tangled in power lines after storms downed transmission towers.
Few storm-related injuries were reported, but a woman in Northwest Indiana died when a tree fell on her Cedar Lake home. Laura Nagel, 44, was pronounced dead and identified by her family after storms ripped through the area Monday night, the Lake County, Indiana, coroner’s office said.
The last time the area saw 22 tornadoes in one day was in March 2023, but before that, it was in June 2014, King said.
"So obviously it's not an every year thing and we are still processing this one," King said. "If we get another tornado that is confirmed we could potentially go above that."
Last year, the area set a record of 58 tornadoes and this year the weather could be "on pace" to beat that, thanks to the tornadoes that swept through the area during the derecho Monday.
"For that to move over the area and bring the strong winds and have these embedded tornadoes is incredibly unique," King said.
