EF0 tornado, Streamwood to Inverness, Illinois, February 27, 2024

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF0

Date

February 27, 2024

Touchdown

7:29 PM CST (01:29 UTC)

Lifted

7:35 PM CST (01:35 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

3.8 miles (6.2 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Cook County

Touchdown point

42.047, -88.199

Lift-off point

42.086, -88.145

Record number

2402271929-01

159 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Roof damage at the Ace Hardware and Batavia Parcel. Pieces of roof from Ace thrown behind the store. Soffit siding damage. Soffit, root, sign damage at Batavia Parcel.
• 82 mph wind gust at personal weather station.
• Windows broken and fascia stripped. Tree damage at this location as well.
• Fence debris damaged a house.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Following summer-like, record warmth, severe thunderstorms developed in the late afternoon of February 27th over northwest Illinois and spread east through the evening across the Chicago metro area. A total of 11 tornadoes touched down in Illinois. There were 11 tornadoes in total across the NWS Chicago area of responsibility, which is the most in a February event since official NWS tornado records began in 1950. In addition to the tornadoes, the storms produced numerous instances of severe hail and damaging straight-line wind.

This tornado touched down just west of Sutton Road and north of Golf Road in the Carl Hansen Woods of the Arthur L. Janura Preserve, initially producing tree damage and peeling part of the roof off of a picnic shelter. The tornado may have lifted temporarily as it tracked northeast through the preserve toward Bartlett Road and Shoe Factory Road, but access to these forest preserve areas was limited. Along Higgins Road, roof and fascia damage was noted to several buildings in an office complex before the tornado caused damage at Goebbert`s Farm across the road. In the subdivision to the northeast of the farm, a few trees were uprooted along Star Lane. The tornado then moved into The Glen subdivision, where it produced a swath of concentrated tree damage and damaged roofs and chimneys at a few residences as it reached its peak width. The tornado then produced tree damage along and north of Mundhank Road before it dissipated as it entered the Terra Vita Estates subdivision.

This tornado touched down in the area near Della Drive in Hoffman Estates and tracked northeast, snapping tree branches, downing power lines along Hassell Road, and damaging shingles, fascia, and gutters on homes. The tornado then tracked across I-90 and entered the Paul Douglas Forest Preserve, where it snapped and uprooted several trees. The tornado then exited the forest preserve and entered the subdivision to the northwest of Algonquin Road and Ela Road, where it caused roof, soffit, and fascia damage to several residences. Shortly thereafter, the tornado lifted as it entered Inverness.

This tornado formed near Studio Drive in South Barrington, with the first damage observed at the South Barrington Tennis Club. The tornado moved northeastward through eastern sections of The Glen subdivision, producing sporadic tree damage. As the tornado crossed Barrington Road near Mundhank Road, significant tree damage occurred, with numerous branches and trunks snapped. The tornado continued northeast toward Willow Creek Church, where it uprooted at least one tree and damaged metal bus shelters. Damage became less severe as the tornado neared Algonquin Road, but increased again as the tornado turned to the east toward Whispering Trails Drive and Huntington Boulevard in Hoffman Estates. Damage was noted to residences along Chesapeake Court, Fir Court, and Crimson Drive with two residences losing a significant amount of roofing material. Other homes in the neighborhood had shingle damage, and a window was damaged at another residence. Tree damage, including broken limbs, was also observed. Roofing material removed from a home on Fir Court was deposited to the northwest, with plywood impaled into the ground and other debris penetrating the wall of a house, ending up in its living room. The tornado dissipated near Crimson Drive in Hoffman Estates.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

12 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:17 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:54 UTC and running to 04:00 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:28 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.