The National Weather Service has confirmed that an area extending from Plainfield to Romeoville was hit by a tornado Sunday night.
The tornado was rated EF-0 with peak winds of 85 mph.
That compares to the EF-3 rated tornado with winds up to 140 mph that hit Naperville, Woodridge and other communities in DuPage County, damaging 130 homes and leading to injuries requiring hospitalization for eight people.
No one was injured in Plainfield, but falling trees did damage two houses.
“An EF-0 tornado with peak winds of 85 mph and path length of 3.2 miles touched down in Plainfield and lifted in Romeoville,” the National Weather Service website states. “Tree damage was common along the path of the tornado.”
In Plainfield, the tornado appeared to touch down just outside of downtown, causing damages in residential neighborhoods bordered by businesses in an area east of Route 59 and between Route 126 and Lockport Street.
“It didn’t have the power to rip a roof off,” Plainfield Mayor John Argoudelis said of the tornado. “It had the power to knock down trees.”
Argoudelis said the tornado appeared to touch down just east of Route 59 at Route 126.
As it continued east, the tornado would have moved into an unpopulated area that includes the Turtle Lake forest preserve, a rock quarry and open space, Argoudelis noted.
Farther east along the tornado route, the Mistwood Golf Club in Romeoville saw some impact with damage to five trees, mostly large branches falling although one pine tree about 15-feet tall was knocked down in the wind, said Ben Bradbury, assistant pro at Mistwood.
NWS on Tuesday provided more information about the Naperville tornado, saying the most significant damage occurred between 11 and 11:30 p.m. and extended to Woodridge, Darien, Burr Ridge and Willow Springs.
(Geoff Stellfox – gstellfox@shawmedia.com/)
NWS continued to assess damage from the tornado.
The Associated Press reported that the mayor of Woodridge counted at least 100 homes in that village with significant damage and hundreds of others with some damage.
Besides Plainfield, NWS also was assessing damages in other areas of the Chicago region. The Plainfield-Romeoville event was the only one determined to be a tornado as of Tuesday morning.
NWS was still investigating an area of northwest Indiana between Hobart and South Haven to determine the cause of damages there.
But straight-line winds were determined to be the cause of storm damage in three other areas: between North Aurora and Kaneville, between Downers Grove and Hinsdale, and Addison.
This is a developing story. Check for updates.
Source: The Daily Chronicle
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