The National Weather Service has confirmed at least 12 tornadoes ripped through Central Illinois during midway storms on Wednesday, including two near the McLean-DeWitt county border.
The weather service said one tornado, spotted about three miles northwest of Farmer City between 1:50 and 1:55 p.m., was rated an EF-1, with estimated wind speeds of 100 mph, and maxed out at 100 yards wide — the length of a football field.
The weather service said the tornado began in a cornfield. It destroyed a farm outbuilding, flattened corn and damaged trees as it moved northeast and dissipated into a field a short time later.
Another tornado was confirmed around 2:13 p.m. near Bellflower in far southeastern McLean County. NWS said the rope-shaped tornado developed in a field east of Illinois Route 54, based on video relayed by broadcast media. That tornado was not given an EF rating and was not linked to any reported damage.
NWS said a storm chaser took video of a brief tornado touchdown north of Hopedale in Tazewell County. That tornado was on the ground for about 45 seconds and caused no damage.
The bulk of the tornadoes were in west-central Illinois. The strongest was an EF-2 reported near Literberry northeast of Jacksonville in Morgan County.
The tornado touched down near a neighborhood northeast of the Jacksonville Airport where it damaged several large trees, the weather service said. It also took down nearly a dozen utility poles and caused significant damage to a farmstead. It also damaged several trees and caused debris from metal farm buildings.
Six of the tornadoes were categorized as EF-1 that have wind speeds of up to 115 mph. Three were EF-0s, which have winds of 65 to 85 mph.
Two of the tornadoes had no EF classification.
No one was injured in any of the tornadoes.
The worst of the storms stayed south of Bloomington-Normal, though the Twin Cities experienced heavy rain as the system pushed through the area.
The tornadoes and accompanying thunderstorms pushed out of the area by mid-afternoon, giving way to warmer temperatures. A heat advisory is in effect for Central Illinois from Saturday afternoon though Tuesday evening.
