(Chicago) Severe storms that appear to have spawned rare tornadoes in February sent residents across the Midwest scrambling for safety and left damage and power outages across four Great Lakes states, including the suburbs of Chicago, ending a period of sometimes record summer temperatures.
Nearly two dozen confirmed or suspected tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio littered roadways with uprooted trees and broken branches; shredded houses and barns; and scattered debris in the cities and countryside. No injuries were reported, although the storm occurred at night.
In Grand Blanc County, near Flint, a confirmed tornado ― only the second recorded in February in that part of the state ― damaged housing developments, uprooted trees and ruptured gas lines in the early morning hours of Wednesday. Its strength was estimated at EF-2, with peak winds of 185 kilometers/hour.
Police and firefighters moved residents threatened by a gas leak to a fire station, and they were allowed to return home when a power company made repairs, authorities said.
“There are still reports of numerous downed electrical wires in the area,” police said. Homes in the area suffered significant damage, but no one was injured. »
More than 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the southwest, a confirmed tornado damaged homes and barns and brought down trees and power lines in Calhoun County, near the town of Marshall, sheriff and weather officials said .
Warning sirens woke residents in central Ohio as a possible tornado struck near Columbus.
PHOTO JULIAN LESHAY GUADALUPE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The storms followed unusual heat across much of the region in recent days.
The storms destroyed a hangar and damaged planes at a small airport in Madison County, between Dayton and Columbus. Toppled trees closed roads in the area until the debris could be cleared.
At least five other storms in Ohio have been confirmed as tornadoes: in Montgomery and Greene counties in southwest Ohio; east of Columbus, in Franklin and Licking counties; in Hilliard, Franklin County; east of London, in Madison County and ending just south of West Jefferson; and near Springfield, Clark County. The latter was category EF-2.
At one point, more than 50,000 customers in Ohio and Michigan were without power on Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us.
The National Weather Service office in Chicago reported, via social media
In Geneva, a western suburb of the city, storms uprooted trees and left some homes with broken windows and torn-off doors Tuesday night, Fire Chief Mike Antenore said.
The storms followed unusual heat across much of the region in recent days. They were followed on Wednesday by a return to wintry weather, with snow and temperatures around -6 degrees Celsius in some areas.
Weather service crews across the region were trying to confirm tornado reports. A suspected tornado crossed Chicago’s southern suburbs ― from Calumet City, Illinois, to East Chicago and Gary, in northwest Indiana ― before heading toward Lake Michigan as a waterspout, said Kevin Doom, a meteorologist with the weather service.
The Grand Blanc tornado is only the second February tornado in the part of Michigan covered by the National Weather Service office in Detroit since records began in 1950, following the one in Wayne County on February 28, 1974, a indicated the meteorological service.
The hot weather and severe storms, including hailstones 1 inch in diameter, Tuesday and Wednesday are unusual for the region this time of year, said meteorologist Dave Kook of the Weather Service office in Detroit. .
“This is not at all typical of late February,” he said. In fact, that’s a month ahead of schedule for Southeast Michigan. »
Robert Trapp, professor and director of the School of Earth, Society and Environment at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, noted that February tornadoes in the state are “rare, but not without precedent.
Based on data dating back to 1955, four EF-1 tornadoes touched down in the state on Feb. 28, 2017, while one EF-2 tornado was recorded on Feb. 28, 1974, Trapp said. .
Tornadoes in Michigan have rarely been reported during the first week of March, occurring only in 1956, 1961, 1976 and 1983. They are more common throughout the month of March.
The weather service office that covers southwest and central Ohio has recorded winter tornadoes almost every year since 2012.