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Tornado in Stephenson County, Illinois
Tornado July 15, 2024 · Stephenson County, Illinois
The path drawn at its surveyed width of 10 yards (0.01 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.
What the National Weather Service wrote
A trained spotter video confirmed a short-lived tornado southwest of Dakota, or northeast of Freeport. There was no observed damage to assign a rating.
The wider storm
Thunderstorms rapidly developed over northern Iowa during the afternoon and organized into a powerful line of wind producing storms that surged through the Quad Cities and into northern and central Illinois through the evening hours. These storms brought widespread damaging winds up to 100 mph for many locations, extending across eastern Iowa, much of Illinois, and into Indiana. The Storm Prediction Center has classified this event as a Derecho which by definition is a swath of wind damage at least 400 miles long and at least 60 miles wide including several well-separated significant wind gusts over 75 mph. Corridors of significant wind damage occurred along Highway 20. 10 tornadoes also occurred with these storms in the NWS Quad Cities service area.
In addition to the wind, very heavy rainfall fell in a short amount of time with many locations seeing over an inch. The highest totals fell in McDonough and Warren counties in Illinois where amounts between 2 and 3 inches fell.
Began near Dakota Dornink Arpt (42.3700, -89.5800).
Other tornadoes from the same storm system
8 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1204494. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.
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