Two tornadoes with winds up to 85 miles an hour briefly touched down in Champaign on Sunday around 2 p.m. While no one was hurt, it only took the two tornadoes about a minute to damage a number of homes in the Champaign area, knocking out the power to many more.
It’s Severe Weather Preparedness Week in Illinois. The state saw its first round of severe weather last week when tornadoes killed three people. The National Weather Service is looking for severe weather spotters to help give people advance warning of severe weather.
There are no reports of injuries, but at least two rural properties were destroyed near Homer and Broadlands. Meterologist Jeff Frame says he estimates the tornado, which stayed on the ground for 17 minutes, as an EF-2 based on the level of damage. There are also reports of at least one more tornado and some damage in Vermilion County.
The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for most of central Illinois through 11pm Thursday night. Meteorologist Jeff Frame says the worst storms will likely come just after dark and could include severe storms, damaging winds and tornadoes.
