EF0 tornado, Western Springs to Jackson Park, Illinois, July 14, 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

July 14, 2024

Touchdown

10:40 PM CDT (03:40 UTC)

Lifted

10:44 PM CDT (03:44 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

3.6 miles (5.8 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Cook County

Touchdown point

41.768, -87.634

Lift-off point

41.781, -87.568

Record number

2407142140-01

51 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• North side of track about 300 ft north of 69th street
• A number of large branches and uprooted trees. Circulation went out over the lake
• North edge just north of 52nd st
• Tree split and fell onto a fence and adjacent home at this location.

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

Thunderstorms developed during the evening of July 14th and continued into the early morning of July 15th, as they moved across all of northern and central Illinois. Nine tornadoes occurred, along with widespread wind damage. In the City of Chicago, there were 2,810 tree emergency calls and 1,430 calls for tree debris. Localized flash flooding also occurred, for a second night in a row in the Rockford area.

A tornado with estimated peak winds of 75 mph touched down near 41st Street and Poplar Place in La Grange and moved northeast through Brookfield, Riverside and Berwyn before ending just northeast of the intersection of Cermak Road and Laramie Road. Damage along the tornado's path was entirely confined to trees.

A tornado with estimated peak winds of 85 mph began on the northeast side of Midway Airport and moved northeast across West Elsdon, Gage Park, New City, and Fuller Park where it primarily caused tree and minor roof damage. The tornado crossed Interstate 90/94 producing additional tree damage as it moved through the Grand Boulevard and Kenwood neighborhoods. Numerous large tree limbs and several trees were blown down near 48th Street and State Street. The tornado crossed Lake Shore Drive and then moved out over Lake Michigan as a waterspout.

A tornado with estimated peak winds of 80 mph began near Harvard Avenue between 69th Street and 70th Street near the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago. The tornado moved northeast crossing Interstate 94 then crossed Interstate 90, where a railroad car was reported to be knocked over. A roof was damaged on a building near 68th Street and Rhodes Avenue with debris scattered onto the street. The tornado continued across the Woodlawn and Jackson Park neighborhoods of Chicago where numerous trees were damaged, some snapped, some uprooted. Minor roof damage was also reported. A large tree was uprooted and fell onto two houses in the 6600 block of South University Avenue. A large tree was snapped and fell onto a roadway near Marquette Road and Kimbark Avenue. The tornado moved out over Lake Michigan as a waterspout near the 63rd Street Beach.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:38 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:47 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:55 UTC and running to 04:52 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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.

Chicago (MDW), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:39 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

13 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.