Weather service issues high storm threat alert for much of Midwest
11/17/2013CHICAGO — A number of Midwestern states woke up today to the threat of intense thunderstorms and even tornados, with officials raising concerns that people — including fans heading to some NFL games — might be caught off guard by such severe weather at this time of year.
“People can fall into complacency because they don’t see severe weather and tornados, but we do stress that they should keep a vigilant eye on the weather and have a means to hear a tornado warning because things can change very quickly,” said Matt Friedlein, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
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According to agency officials, parts of Illinois, Indiana, southern Michigan and western Ohio are at the greatest risk of seeing tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds throughout the day today. Strong winds and atmospheric instability were expected to sweep across the central Plaines during the day before pushing into the mid-Atlantic states and northeast by evening. Many of the storms were expected to become supercells, w2ith the potential to produce tornadoes, large hail and destructive winds.
In Chicago, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications issued a warning to fans attending making their way to Soldier Field to watch the Chicago Bears host the Baltimore Ravens. It urged fans “to take extra precautions and ... appropriate measures to ensure their personal safety.”
Friedlein said that such strong storms are rare this late in the year because there usually isn’t enough heat from the sun to sustain the thunderstorms. But he said temperatures today are expected to reach into the 60s and 70s, which he said is warm enough to help produce severe weather when it is coupled with winds, which are typically stronger this time of year than in the summer.
“You don’t need temperatures in the 80s and 90s to produce severe weather (because) the strong winds compensate for the lack of heating,” he said. “That sets the stage for what we call wind shear, which may produce tornadoes.”
He also said that the tornadoes this time a year happen more often than people might realize, pointing to a twister that hit the Rockford, Ill., area in November 2010.
Friedlein said that the storm will move across northern Illinois from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., meaning Chicago could see the brunt of it about the time the Bears-Ravens gets underway.
NFL games in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh also could be affected by the rough weather.