Chicago tornado warning sounded, Wrigley Field evacuated

Chicago tornado warning sounded, Wrigley Field evacuated

news.yahoo.com

Tornado sirens echoed throughout Chicago's downtown Monday night.

Thousands of fans at Monday's game between the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros were evacuated from the stands to the stadium's concourse

(visit the link for the full news article)

Tornadoes in Chicago... Chicago?? How often does that happen..

Is that just a fluke or a harrp Gwen thing?

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Chicago has had many tornado warnings in the last 15 years. It's not a scarce thing, the time of year is a bit odd though, as most occur in April and May, and then again in September into mid-October.

A lot of people tend to think that it's an "outrageous" idea that a tornado would hit a larger city, when the fact of the matter is, a tornado is fully capable of striking any place on Earth, it is nature, it will do what it wants.

Here's a way to look at it, picture the Earth as a dart board, each dart you throw represents a tornado touching down and causing at least SOME damage. While it's true that you don't hear of it often, there's more "wide open space", and "smaller communities" than there are bigger cities, and by the same token, there's only a limited location where conditions are constantly favorible for such development.

The same people freaked out during the Atlanta tornado, but people need to remember, they are not safe because of a big city, or the terrain per sey.

P.S. There was NO tornado touchdown in Chicago, the tornado was doppler radar indicated, and as far as 1020 PM CDT goes, there weren't any reports of funnel clouds IN Chicago.

[edit on 4.8.2008 by Shugo]

Ok a tornado hits OK city Oklahoma I am not surprised, Tornado hits SA texas and I raise an eyebrow being a bit on the furthest edge of tornado alley... but Tornadoes in Chicago!?! ... I don't even hear of spouts in that area? Wind yeah but Corpus Christi is windier..They should not even have that title of windy city...

OK I am going way off there.

Seriously though they closed the game due to Tornadoes?

I heard a number of them did touch down and through the downtown area...


Thats freaky!

It kinda makes me wonder about those weather manipulating chinease

0 Tornadoes touched down in Chicago.
1 Tornado touched down in Du Page County, in the city of Elmhurst, it wasn't long lived.

As said, tornadoes can form ANYWHERE, tornado alley is just a term used to say "hey, this is where we see tornadoes the most, because conditions get just perfect here for them." Aside of which, Chicago isn't FAR outside of tornado alley.

Many tornado warnings in chicago the last 15 years, but none of them touch, and as far as I recall, there have only been a few bouts on the lake, which were short lived, and no damage was caused. Not sure what source you were reading about the funnels touching, but there were none.

It is manditory that all public gatherings be put on hold if a tornado warning is issued for the area, no ands, ifs, ors, or buts, about it...even if it is only doppler radar indicated.

A tornado in or near Chicago is not out of the question, Illinois has a number of tornado warning each year. Illinois is only a couple hundred miles from the "tornado alley" area, which is the area most common for tornado activity, but they can happen almost anywhere in the US

Ok thats good.. I was only telling ya about what I heard second/ third hand... I think the original source was A.M. talk radio. Soooo yeah.

The National Weather Service isn't reporting these claimed funnel clouds either.

Times are in Z:
0101 ELMHURST DUPAGE IL 4190 8794 TORNADO ON GROUND. (LOT)
Time - City - County - State - Lat - Lon - Comment (Office)

That's the only report. Rather short isn't it? I honestly would've thought there'd have been more, those storms were nasty!

[edit on 4.8.2008 by Shugo]

We had a small tornado touch down here north of NYC last month. Now that was odd, but again, not exactly unheard of. There was a big one further north maybe fifteen or twenty years ago I think it was.

[edit on 8/4/0808 by jackinthebox]

Hi, Vince from Elmhurst here.

Is that Lat and Lon the location of the touchdown? Or simply the location of Elmhurst, because if that was the touchdown spot then it was directly down the main street of Downtown Elmhurst.

Over on the south side of Elmhurst where I live there was little observable damage and sparsely even any high velocity winds during the event last night so it must have been on the outskirts of the north side of town or something, or simply a week funnel.

Eh, either way, thats my two cents.

I live about 15 miles from the path of widest tornado recorded in the US, it was in Hallam, Nebraska in 2004 and had a width of 2.5 miles. I had access to some land/ponds out there, so I was very familiar with what the area looked like, I went out the day after the tornado, it was bizarre, pure destruction, nothing was recognizable, it was like I had never been there. I chase tornadoes alot, and have been around my whole life, but that one was a serious monster.

reply to post by titorite


you obviously havent a clue.. the chicago area gets hit ..every year with these storms.. its in a ripe location for it.. the hot air and the cool air from lake michigan dont mix well... they dont have those sirens hooked up for there looks.

Exactly, and it is manditory for emergency officials to evacuate large events where there is a risk of human safety, that includes Wrigley Field. When a Tornado Warning is issued, they transmit to all active events as well (bet your dollar that each facility has a weather radio, or scanner of some sort), and when EAS is activated, they are required by law to halt activities, and assist in removing of all persons from the area into a safe location.

The time between a Tornado Warning being issued, and the time tornado sirens go off is usually under 5 minutes, so all locations within the path of this storm have roughly 5 minutes lead on those without weather radios (give or take, I have never been in Chicago during a warning to know the delay).

The law is the same everywhere, a Tornado Warning is issued, "Ladies and gentlemen, due to severe weather, the game/event has been post poned, please follow the stadium/event personell, and they will lead you to a safe location."

It can go from a doppler radar indicated tornado, to a tornado on the ground in the blink of an eye, why risk it?

[edit on 5.8.2008 by Shugo]