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Tornado That Hit Chicago Tuesday Was 'Weak,' And This Is Why

By Kelly Bauer | August 10, 2016 11:16am | Updated on August 11, 2016 8:35am
 The tornado marked the first time a tornado landed in city limits since Sept. 22, 2006.
The tornado marked the first time a tornado landed in city limits since Sept. 22, 2006.
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Melanie Harnacke/Federal Aviation Administration

CHICAGO — A tornado that hit the city Tuesday (yes, really) was weak and short-lived. Here's why.

The tornado, the first to hit the city in nearly a decade, developed along the lakeshore at about 3:45 p.m. near Cermak Road and Ogden Avenue.

The tornado — known by weather pros as a landspout — formed from a "contrast between water temperatures and land," said AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok. Basically, winds coming off the water converge with the land and they create a "lake breeze boundary," or a boundary between cooler air and hotter air, Pastelok said.

The air then "comes rushing up and it causes the rotation to spin," Pastelok said. "That can form thunderstorms and, if they get too intense, lead to tornadoes like this one."

Fortunately, these types of tornadoes aren't the city-destroying monsters that get screen time in "Twister" and other natural disaster flicks. It was hard to get a reading on this tornado, Pastelok said, but weaker ones like this landspout usually have wind speeds of 80-100 mph.

"These don't happen too often, but they usually are short-lived and weak," Pastelok said. "The area of damage is usually very small, and the winds around this tornado are one of the weaker of any tornado you would see."

In fact, the only thing a little bit odd about this tornado was that it touched down in Chicago — the last one to hit the city came Sept. 22, 2006 — and that it happened in late summer and not early summer, when they're more common, Pastelok said.

Here are some photos of the twister, courtesy of the National Weather Service and photographed by Melanie Harnacke, an observer with the Federal Aviation Administration:

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