At Least 6 Tornadoes Hit Central Illinois Tuesday

ILLINOIS — Residents in downstate Illinois experienced a rare weather feat for January on Tuesday night as at least six tornadoes were reported in the region, according to the National Weather Service.

Officials with the weather service said Wednesday that damage caused by the tornadoes will be surveyed later in the day. However, they said that the tornado reported near Gibson City in Ford County was the first tornado was only the third January tornado confirmed in the National Weather Service’s Chicago forecast area since 1950.

The other five tornadoes were reported in the NWS’s Central Illinois forecasting region.

Brystal Deer, who lives two miles south of Gibson City and captured a photo of the funnel cloud as it passed through, characterized the weather event as strange and said that she saw nothing just two miles away from the path of the storm.

“It was warm, but (there was) no wind,” Deer told Patch in a social media message on Wednesday. “There was thunder and lightning up by where the storm was, but it was fine by my house.”

Deer said that the only damage caused by the tornado was a shed that was blown down in the path of the tornado.

“I was shocked to look to the north and see (the funnel cloud),” she said.

The National Weather Service on Tuesday evening issued tornado warnings throughout Central Illinois, where winds reached speeds of more than 40 mph and produced penny-sized hail in some areas. Reports indicated that tornadoes started moving through the Decatur area shortly after 5 p.m. and several nearby communities were expected to be affected in rapid succession.

The Weather Service said that the six tornadoes were created by what they called “mini supercell thunderstorms," which weather officials define as rotating thunderstorms that are often capable of producing severe weather.