At least two tornadoes have been confirmed in Illinois as the entire Chicago metro area remained under a tornado warning on Thursday.
More Top Picks Best Desk Chairs For Students
National Weather Service officials confirmed Thursday evening that two tornadoes had torn through parts of the state, including one in areas southwest of Streator and another near Dwight. Weather officials said they were also getting reports of a tornado causing damage in Merrillville, Indiana.
Multiple tornadoes rip through Illinois and Indiana: ‘It’s just, it’s just gone’
The National Weather Service had expanded its tornado watches to include parts of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin before announcing tornado watches for much of Cook County and Porter County, Ind.
Weather officials issue a tornado watch when conditions create the potential for tornado formations, while tornado warnings are issued when a tornado has been spotted by radar and is expected soon.
The warning for Cook County, which included Chicago, Cicero and Oak Lawn, was in effect until 8:45 p.m.
The watch, which is set to expire at 9 p.m., is in effect for 51 counties across Illinois, including Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will. Weather officials warn that severe storms through the afternoon and early evening could likely bring several tornadoes, scattered hail up to the size of a tennis ball and widespread gusts of up to 80 mph.
In anticipation of the severe weather, a Mumford & Sons concert at Wrigley Field originally set to begin at 6:30 p.m. was pushed back three and a half hours, the band announced on social media. The opening sets were canceled.
A White Sox game scheduled to begin at 6:40 p.m. was canceled, the team has announced. The game against the Atlanta Braves will be made up in August.
Elsewhere, the 45th Annual Fiestas Patronales Puertorriqueñas did not open Thursday afternoon in Humboldt Park as scheduled and will open instead at 3 p.m. Friday.
On Wednesday, several calls of tornado activity poured in, but until weather officials investigate damage, no tornadoes had been confirmed as of Thursday morning.
Buena Park resident and artist Mia Dalton says she watched a gust of wind knock two objects that looked like HVAC units or AC unit covers off of a nearby apartment building’s roof. Dalton caught the incident on camera and uploaded it to TikTok.
“I was looking out my window at the storm and I saw the crazy wind, I saw trees breaking and as I’m taking a video, all of a sudden I see something fall off of the roof next to me and I hear a loud bang,” she said. “I couldn’t believe I got it on video.”
“I saw people running around the same area after it happened and I was so anxious while the storm was still going that there was going to be something else that fell,” she added.
As of Thursday afternoon, more than 130,000 ComEd customers were without power.
As storms approached, weather officials were keeping an eye on the southern and western suburbs and areas south of Interstate 80 in particular for tornado activity, according to Kevin Donofrio, a meteorologist with the weather service in Chicago. The risk for tornadoes in those areas was “slightly elevated,” Donofrio said.
More Top Picks Best Drones Under 50
By mid-afternoon, the weather service — on top of the tornado watch — had issued a host of alerts for flooding, thunderstorms and high winds in response to the storms. Ahead of more storms expected for the early evening, Donofrio said locally damaging winds could reach up to 60 mph.
Donofrio said Thursday’s bout of weather could look similar to the storms that whipped through the region Wednesday.
Thursday high temperatures in the 80s are expected, dropping to the high 50s in the night hours. Current conditions at O’Hare International Airport are mostly cloudy at 81 degrees. At Midway Airport farther south, conditions are similar at 80 degrees.
The Tribune’s Evgenia Anastasakos and Doug George contributed.