1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Chicago, IL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 10, 1:37 PM CST, 7 hours 33 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHICAGO IL 237 PM CDT THU MAY 10 2001 SHORTWAVE ROTATING INTO WEST CENTRAL ILLINOIS THIS AFTERNOON SEEN WELL ON SAT PICS AND ALL MODELS HAVE GOOD HANDLE ON THIS. DESPITE RATHER THICK CLOUD SHIELD...TEMPS WARMED NICELY INTO THE LOWER 80S MOST AREAS. DIFFICULT TO PICK OUT BOUNDARIES ACROSS THE AREA...BUT SOME TYPE OF BOUNDARY EVIDENT ACROSS NORTHERN ILLINOIS WITH TEMPS IN THE 70S WITH DEWPOINTS IN THE LOWER 60S NORTH OF THIS BOUNDARY AND TEMPS IN THE LOWER 80S WITH DEWPOINTS IN THE UPPER 50S SOUTH OF THE BOUNDARY. AND BY 19Z...A FEW SHOWERS HAVE DEVELOPED JUST NORTH OF THIS AREA AND EXTEND NORTHEAST INTO SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN. EXPECT AS S/W ROTATES ACROSS ILLINOIS THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT THESE SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE. ETA HAS PICKED UP ON THIS AFTERNOON/S ACTIVITY WELL...SHOWING DEVELOPMENT CONTINUING INTO MICHIGAN DURING THE EVENING. BACK WEST...BEST PRESSURE FALLS AND CONVERGENCE STILL PROGGED OVER SOUTHWEST IOWA AND SOUTHEAST NEBRAKSA THIS EVENING. EXPECT CONVECTION TO FIRE IN THIS REGION LATE AFTERNOON...SIMILAR TO TIME OF DAY CONVECTION FIRED ON WEDNESDAY THOUGH AVN DOESN/T SHOW MUCH IN THIS AREA UNTIL FRIDAY MORNING. HOWEVER...ETA DOESN/T SEEM TO HAVE A GOOD HANDLE WITH ONGOING CONVECTION INTO MINNESOTA AND WISCONSIN THIS AFTERNOON. ALL THIS SAID...WILL USE A BLEND OF THE MODELS TONIGHT. EXPECT SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS TO DEVELOP THIS EVENING AND MOVE ACROSS FA AREA TONIGHT AHEAD OF COLD FRONT. INSTABILITY DECENT THIS EVENING WITH CAPES AOA 2000 AND LI/S AOA -4 SO SVR STORMS POSSIBLE...BUT THREAT WILL DIMINISH THROUGH THE NIGHT. TEMPS TONIGHT TRICKY AS TIMING OF COLD FRONT WILL PLAY KEY ROLE. PLAN TO STAY CLOSE TO GUDIANCE TONIGHT AND FRIDAY...THOUGH WITH CLEARING SKIES AND SOME SUN...NORTHERN AREAS MAY RECOVER SOME. GUIDANCE CLOSE AND FOLLOWED LATER PERIODS AS WELL. EXTENDED...HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS IN SATURDAY BRINGING DRY AND COOL WEATHER BUT SOUTHERLY FLOW KICKS IN SUNDAY AND LOOKS LIKE WARMER TEMPS THE WAY TO GO WITH SUNSHINE. MRF A LITTLE FASTER WITH SYSTEM DROPPING OUT OF NORTHERN PLAINS...APPROACHING FA MONDAY NIGHT. FOR NOW WILL CONTINUE WITH CHANCE POPS ON TUESDAY. COOLER WITH NORTHERLY FLOW BEHIND THIS SYSTEM MID WEEK. AT 1935Z SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS NOW DEVELOPING SOUTHWEST FA AND BOUNDARY MENTIONED ABOVE NOW SEEN ON RADAR DATA. .CHI...NONE. CMS
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A tornado was spotted by police, a trained spotter and the public in a farm field. There was no damage reported.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Illinois in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Illinois, 2001Warnings in Illinois, May 2001
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5241264.