I am not an alarmist and it's not exactly breaking news anyway that Illinois sees a lot of tornadoes every Spring. However, it might bear watching 2024 in particular as past weather patterns might indicate the Land of Lincoln might be in the danger zone for twister development.
It's really not unusual for Illinois to have a lot of tornadoes, but it's not typical for the Land of Lincoln to have more than any other state, but that's exactly what has happened in 2023.
At any time in Illinois, you might see any number of things cruising down your street. Vehicles obviously, the occasional dog walker, exercise freaks...oh and tornadoes. That's what one family saw zooming down their street recently.
Most residents in west-central Illinois likely had no idea there was a dangerous storm moving through the area overnight early Saturday morning. But, weather survey teams have confirmed there was a 200 yard wide tornado that struck near Marceline, Illinois.
Normally, being #1 at something is a good thing. That's not true in this case. Surprisingly, Illinois has become the tornado capital of America and the numbers so far in 2023 prove that point.
It was thin by tornado standards, but it did plenty of damage during its very brief time on the Earth. New video shows an Iowa tornado with the view from nearly directly underneath the spiraling vortex overhead.
There have been very few weather days quite like what transpired on March 31, 2023. Among the more than 100 confirmed tornadoes was a monster wedge in Keota, Iowa that storm chasers got up-close-and-personal with.