Tornado in De Kalb County, Illinois

High resolution satellite imagery showed a ground swirl pattern in a field beginning near Miller Road and IL-23 northeast of Waterman. The tornado moved through a field to the southeast, then turned to the east as it crossed Crego Road. The tornado lifted just east of Crego Road. Because this tornado did not impact any buildings or trees, no intensity estimates could be made, and thus, this tornado was assigned an EF-U rating.

Following summer-like, record warmth, severe thunderstorms developed in the late afternoon of February 27th over northwest Illinois and spread east through the evening across the Chicago metro area. A total of 11 tornadoes touched down in Illinois. There were 11 tornadoes in total across the NWS Chicago area of responsibility, which is the most in a February event since official NWS tornado records began in 1950. In addition to the tornadoes, the storms produced numerous instances of severe hail and damaging straight-line wind.