'2023 was odd': Chicagoland sets new tornado record

CHICAGO - To say 2023 was a "busy year" in the local weather department would be a big understatement.

In a FOX 32 Special Report, our Chief Meteorologist Emily Wahls takes a look at just how busy Mother Nature was and what it means for this year.

Chicagoland had a record-breaking year in several different ways when it came to the weather, but perhaps the most remarkable is the sheer number of tornadoes that touched down.

The Chicago National Weather Service confirmed 58 tornadoes in the 2023 calendar year, which shatters our forecast area’s previous tornado record of 30 set in 2015.

We spoke to Brett Borchardt, of the NWS, on the uptick in tornadoes. 

"It's remarkable with 58 tornadoes – that’s nearly four times the average of around 15-16 tornadoes in a year and it's double the previous record of 30 tornadoes in 2015," Borchardt said. 

When you think severe weather season in Illinois, you typically think of the spring and early summer months, but Mother Nature threw out the rule book in 2023, and the year started off with a bang. 

It was the first time in our area’s recorded history in which there were tornadoes in January, February, and March of the same year.

Our biggest tornado outbreak of 2023 occurred in late March. 

The March 31st outbreak produced 22 tornadoes across Chicagoland and it was one of three days in 2023 where our area had 10 or more tornadoes in a single day.

"2023 was odd. Tornadoes started in January, February, March and April. They look a break. May, especially June, there were no tornado touchdowns in our local area and then it picked up again in July," Borchardt said.

So while June was a quiet month for us, that was not the case in July. 

We had a record number of tornadoes in July of 2023 with a count of 27. The previous record for July tornadoes stood at only 4, set in 1993.

For the first time since records began in 1950, all 23 counties in the Chicago NWS forecast area had at least one tornado occur in the same calendar year.

So this begs the question – what will 2024 bring?

"We don’t see any signal one way or the other. As far as we can tell, we’re heading into an average season. Typically severe weather strikes as early as March. We get maybe one or two days in an average March with severe weather and it only increases from there," Borchardt said.

While we’re now in the middle of winter, the time to start prepping for severe weather season is now.

"With severe weather season just a couple months away, now is actually the time to be thinking about your plan. Do you have somewhere to if a tornado warning is issued for your area? Just to be ready before the thunderstorms strike."