EF1 tornado in Lake County, Illinois

This tornado had a very short path with damage confined primarily to a single two-story apartment building. Most of the roof was removed from the building, and a portion of the brick facade also collapsed when the roof was removed. Two large softwood trees in the parking lot east of the building were uprooted. Debris was deposited to the east across the street, where a few tree branches were also snapped. In the apartment building south of the main one that was damaged, a resident described seeing a second story glass patio door on the east side being pulled out and shattered by the winds. One 13 year old resident sustained bad bruising after part of his ceiling collapsed and struck him in the arm.

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.