Illinois Must Take February Tornado Threat Seriously

Everyone knows that winter storms are a common threat for Illinois in February, but not many think about tornadoes. The truth is twisters this early in the year happen more often than you think in Illinois and some have been surprisingly strong.

I saw this shared by the Southern Illinois Weather Information a few days ago on social media. It's a map showing many historic Illinois tornadoes that have done considerable damage in February. Note that several February twisters were later rated as high as EF-4.

Hard to believe tornadoes as strong as EF-4 have caused so much destruction in Illinois is February. I remember two years ago there were 11 confirmed tornadoes in Illinois on February 28, 2024.  It's not as uncommon as you might think. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center just shared this historic probability of tornadoes spanning the last 30 years. Look at how much of Illinois has been under a tornado threat on February 28 from 1994 through 2024.

The list of Illinois tornadoes on Wikipedia is long and there are many February twisters on that list.

This topic came to mind as much of Illinois has seen unseasonably warm temperatures with highs expected to be in the 70's by the end of next week. It's entirely possible that we'll see severe storm development sooner rather than later. There are already signs that the upcoming Spring months might see an uptick in severe weather. Best to be weather aware today than sorry later.