Tornado watches dotted an almost continuous line from South Texas to Southern Michigan on Tuesday night as a sprawling storm system dumped heavy rain and hail reportedly the size of baseballs across a huge section of the Central United States.
The stormy weather began in the afternoon and by late evening reports of tornadoes had come in from Illinois, Indiana and Texas; over and over the National Weather Service issued its most urgent warnings, known as “particularly dangerous situation” alerts, as the storms spun off potentially destructive tornadoes. There were no immediate reports of widespread damage.
At least one confirmed tornado touched down near Kankakee, Ill., about 60 miles southwest of Chicago, the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. The tornado was reported near the city’s fairgrounds and continued into Aroma Park, a neighboring village that has sustained extensive damage, the sheriff’s office said. No injuries have been reported. Trees, debris and power lines have fallen on roads.
A watch is a signal to residents that the ingredients were in place for tornadoes to form, while a warning is a more urgent alert that a tornado is most likely nearby. Short-lived warnings popped up in much of the region as the storms churned along throughout the day.
The tornado threat even includes Chicago, where the risk is very low, only 2 percent, but at this time of year, any tornado threat in the city is unusual.
Scott Baker, a meteorologist with the Weather Service office in Romeoville, Ill., said the bigger concern in the city was wind gusts that could reach over 50 miles per hour, or stronger. Winds this strong can knock over trees. Another concern is hail as large as quarters, or even limes, he said.
The larger threat of tornadoes in the Chicago area falls south of the city, especially areas south of Interstate 80.
“To have this much instability in the atmosphere this early in March, I would say that’s uncommon,” Mr. Baker said. “This weather is more typical of late summer or maybe an early summer pattern.”
Experts rely on a combination of radar data and trained spotters when tornadoes are reported. Because tornadoes are sometimes difficult to see, especially at night, hours or days can pass before a report is confirmed.
The renewed threat of severe weather comes just days after a wave of storms swept the same region on Friday, producing tornadoes that killed at least six people in Michigan and Oklahoma.
The most intense weather is forecast in two separate areas.
All told, more than 70 million people live in an area at some risk from these storms. And while severe thunderstorms are possible from Texas to western Pennsylvania, two areas are at an enhanced risk, with higher chances of extreme weather including intense tornadoes.
One of these areas was spread across a portion of Texas, including Fort Worth, and Oklahoma. The other area at risk was centered in the Midwest from northeast Ohio, across Central Illinois and northern Indiana, and includes Chicago.
The City Council in Peoria, Ill., a town of about 115,000 people about 160 miles southwest of Chicago, canceled a meeting scheduled for Tuesday evening because of the weather.
Forecasters said the storms could deliver wind gusts exceeding 60 miles per hour and hail larger than two inches in diameter, in addition to strong to severe tornadoes.
Matt Mosier, a meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center, said the storms were part of a “fairly typical spring setup,” when warm, moist air surges north from the Gulf of Mexico and meets with passing weather systems. That interaction often produces multiple rounds of storms across the Mississippi Valley, with active periods followed by brief lulls before the cycle repeats. But pinpointing exactly where and when they will hit is difficult.
The storms are also expected to bring the risk of flash flooding, particularly across portions of the central United States, from the Plains toward the southern Great Lakes on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Mitch Smith and Hannah Ziegler contributed reporting.
Nazaneen Ghaffar is a Times reporter on the Weather team.
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