CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes during a Chicago summer aren't necessarily out of the ordinary, but National Weather Service Chicago Meteorologist David King said there was something different about Monday night's storms.
“What makes this one pretty unique was just how strong it was, and the potential rotation track,” King said. “We issued 14 tornado warnings and eight severe thunderstorm warnings overnight.”
He said a tornado was even reported at O'Hare Airport and caused some concern even for Chicago National Weather Service meteorologists.
“When the storm actually passed through, there was a rotation on radar heading toward our office,” he said. “At 9:20 p.m., we had to let one of our other forecast offices in northern Michigan take over operations for a quick minute while we took shelter.”
Now, King said the meteorologists are working to confirm where these tornadoes actually happened.
“We have a number of crews that are going to go out and do what are called storm surveys,” he said. “Our first guess is going to be what we saw on radar, so we have an idea of where we can send them.”
He said because the system was so large, it'll likely take a couple days for an official report to come out.
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