All articles tagged Tornadoes

A string of natural disasters has hit the central U.S. in recent weeks. Tornadoes have devastated communities, tearing up trees and homes. Record rainfall has prevented countless farmers in America's breadbasket from planting crops. Rising rivers continue to flood fields, inundate homes and threaten aging levees from Iowa to Mississippi. And while none of these events can be directly attributed to climate change, extreme rains are happening more frequently in many parts of the U.S. and that trend is expected to continue as the Earth continues to warm.

A devastating series of storms late Wednesday spawned multiple tornadoes that caused extensive damage to several buildings and led to at least three deaths in Missouri.

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.

Meteorologist Andrew Pritchard says he saw his first tornado from his back door in Urbana. Since that day in 1996, Illinois has seen its fair share of twisters.

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.