Tornado reports have surged in recent years across the Chicago-area

CHICAGO - In all my years of forecasting, I’ve never seen so many tornado reports in Chicagoland as have been named by the National Weather Service (NWS) over the past few years.

I reached out to them to confirm my suspicion, and they provided me with the numbers. On this graphic I prepared, I’ve listed the number of tornadoes claimed within the NWS county warning area, which covers all of the Fox 32 primary viewing area.

I asked for data covering the past 20 years and I’ve broken it down into 5-year increments.

It’s an astonishing uptick. Even more startling are the numbers for the last two years. In 2023, 58 tornadoes were identified and last year, 63 were noted, including the evening of July 15, when a whopping record 32 tornadoes were claimed in a matter of a few hours.

The NWS cites better reconnaissance for the sharp rise in tornado reports. More video evidence is available. The use of drones in the aftermath to better co-locate damage with radar-indicated rotation is also being relied on by the NWS to identify tornado damage.

It is worth noting that the vast majority of the tornado reports in the past couple years are weak, EF-0 tornadoes with winds of 85mph or less. 

I plan to gather data from surrounding NWS offices (Lincoln, Davenport, Milwaukee and Northern Indiana) to see whether their offices reflect the same trend shown in the Chicagoland numbers, or whether this is a local oddity.  

By the way, so far this year a dozen tornadoes have been identified by our local NWS. Those occurred just a few days apart March14-15 and the 19th.