Central Illinois temperatures soared into the 60s and 70s over the weekend, more than 30 degrees above normal for late December.
The unseasonal warmth fueled severe thunderstorms that spawned rare winter tornadoes in the region. The National Weather Service confirmed that at least two tornadoes damaged multiple homes as strong winds tore off roofs and lofted debris into the air.
Additional tornadoes could be confirmed later Monday. "The National Weather Service office in Lincoln will be conducting a storm survey for the area near Long Creek in Macon County," it reported. "The survey is in relation to the severe thunderstorms that moved through the area on Sunday."
The NWS reported that an EF-1 tornado hit near Groveland, about two miles east of Pekin Community High School, around 9:30 a.m., destroying outbuildings and snapping trees and power poles.
Video of a tornado in Mount Zion, near Decatur, was posted on X. The Macon County Emergency Management Agency confirmed the brief touchdown of a tornado Sunday afternoon near Blue Mound, per WAND News. There were no reports of injuries.
The Storm Prediction Center tallied more than 60 reports of severe weather Sunday. There were at least six preliminary reports of tornadoes across Central Illinois as a cold front carrying Arctic air plowed into warm, spring-like air that had surged north into the Midwest. Springfield's high reached 71 degrees Fahrenheit, 34 degrees above average and only three degrees away from the record high for the date.
The severe weather was associated with a bomb cyclone that swept through the Midwest and Great Lakes over the weekend. A bomb cyclone is a storm system that rapidly intensifies, with a drop of at least 24 millibars of pressure over 24 hours, at midlatitudes. As of early Monday, the storm was still whipping up strong winds across a large portion of the country, with over 97 million people in at least 25 states under wind alerts.
The overheating planet is supercharging severe weather events, and climate scientists will assess if it played a part in the formation of these tornadoes. Near-record warmth in the Land of Lincoln surely contributed to the instability that triggered the weekend's severe weather outbreak.
As of Monday, there had been over 1,500 preliminary tornado reports across the country this year, the fourth-highest number since 2010. Illinois had the second-most with 139, while Texas had 162.
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