Destructive Tornado Rips Through Coal City, Illinois

By Mark Leberfinger, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

June 23,2015; 9:39PM,EDT

 

 

A commercial jetliner begins its final approach to O'Hare International Airport as mammatus clouds form over Wrigley Field during the fifth inning of a baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers Monday, June 22, 2015, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Tornadoes tore through communities in the Chicago area and Michigan on Monday, injuring at least seven people, authorities said.
The weather system responsible for the severe weather outbreak also spawned a derecho that went from South Dakota to Wisconsin.
Derechos are long-lived complexes of thunderstorms that travel more than 240 miles and cause widespread wind damage, AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Thompson said.
"This cluster of thunderstorms did fit the criteria for a derecho as it traveled from South Dakota through Wisconsin Monday morning," Thompson said.
A tornado created a path of damage in Coal City, Ill. (Twitter Photo/Vince Gerasole)
"The sun then peeked out in many areas, which allowed it to warm up and destabilize the atmosphere. This led to additional thunderstorm development and severe weather during the late-afternoon and evening hours," he said.
One of the twisters heavily damaged property in Coal City, Illinois, southwest of Chicago. No injuries were reported, according to ABC7 Chicago.
The tornado was classified as an EF-3 with estimated winds of up to 160 mph over a path of 16.5 miles, the National Weather Service at Chicago said.
The twister occurred around 10 p.m. Monday, local time. It damaged a school and a fire station.

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Three other tornadoes were reported Monday in Illinois as a result of the storm system.
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The same storm, while still tornado-warned, tore down high-tension power lines to the Braidwood Nuclear Power Station in Braidwood, Illinois.
The station continued to produce electricity, Exelon Nuclear reported.
A trained weather spotter reported a tornado touchdown near Sublette, Illinois, where a private camping resort was damaged and one person seriously injured, The Associated Press reported.
In Michigan, more than 50 buildings and hundreds of trees were damaged from an EF-1 tornado that ran a 4-mile path through Portland, northwest of Lansing.
The tornado, which occurred about 2:30 p.m. EDT, had an estimated peak wind of 100 mph, the National Weather Service office in Grand Rapids said.