The tri-states area is expected to see more hazardous weather Friday evening after a severe storm dropped at least one tornado north of Table Grove earlier in the day.
As of 3:41 p.m. on Friday, the National Weather Service out of the Quad Cities posted an alert saying a few of these evening storms may be severe with large hail, damaging winds, tornadoes and flash flooding.
Dr. Marcus Büker, Associate Professor of Meteorology at WIU, says the region is likely to see these severe storms between 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.. Büker was storm chasing earlier on Friday when he captured video of a tornado forming out of a supercell thunderstorm in Fulton County. He said a majority of the storm damage he came across included broken tree branches and a tree snapped in half.
In Macomb, some roads temporarily flooded within city limits. On U.S. 67 south of Macomb and north of Industry only one lane is open after the road was closed earlier Friday afternoon because of debris, according to McDonough County EMS.
The Macomb – McDonough County Communications Center posted information on Thursday clarifying how alerts are sent out via storm sirens:
- When a tornado warning is issued by the National Weather Service and/or a tornado or funnel cloud is reported by a trained spotter, storm sirens will be activated for the towns named in the warning. The center will activate fire department pagers for the towns named in the warning so that they have a heads up on the weather situation. Lastly, the center will activate storm sirens for the towns named in the warning every 15 minutes until the warning has been terminated. The center will NOT sound an “all clear” siren to avoid confusion. Remember that a warning usually means a tornado has been spotted or it is indicated on weather radar. A watch means conditions are good to spawn a tornado.
- When a severe thunderstorm warning is issued by the National Weather Service, the center will activate the pagers for the fire departments named in the path of the storm. If the warning issued indicates that there are winds greater than 70 miles per hour, or that there is golf ball sized or larger hail associated with the storm, they will set off the storm sirens for the towns named in the path of the storm as well as activating the pagers for those fire departments.
- The center will only set off the sirens for the towns named in the path of a storm or tornado. If, for example, the message from the National Weather Service indicates that only Industry is in the path of a storm or tornado, they will not set off the sirens for Macomb or any other community in McDonough County to avoid causing undue panic.
NEWS3 will continue to monitor tonight’s storms and post updates on Facebook.
