The WLDS/WEAI listening area had an active evening of severe weather yesterday. Pittsfield was the first to receive the blunt of a system that swept through the area beginning in the late afternoon. The National Weather Service recorded a 72 mile per hour wind gust near Pittsfield, where multiple trees were downed in the area, with one striking a home. No reports of injuries were mentioned. Quincy’s WGEM reports several homes and stoplights were without power in the Pittsfield area for several hours yesterday evening.
Less than an hour later, at approximately 3:30PM, citizens near Jacksonville and in between Chapin and Arenzville spotted funnel clouds. None of the funnel clouds touched down. There was no reported wind damage in Morgan County.
At 4PM, the system produced its first tornado touchdown to the extreme east of the WLDS/WEAI listening area 2 miles north of Auburn in Sangamon County. At least three tornado reports from the National Weather Service have come out of Sangamon County around Auburn, but these reports as of right now are attributed to one tornado. Multiple reports of trees taken down, power lines bent and/or taken down have been received as well as damage to a grain building and out building were reported. According to Newschannel 20 WICS, a 55 foot tall, 12 inch in diameter tree was taken down across a road. Some damage was also reported in and around the Virden area in Northern Macoupin County.
The second tornado produced by the system touched down near White Oak in Montgomery County at approximately 4:20PM. No damage has been reported to the National Weather Service in that area at this time.
The National Weather Service will now do damage assessments with local Emergency Management Coordinators and possibly assign a Fujita-Pearson score to determine the tornado’s intensity.