Why have the same areas been getting hit with severe weather this summer?
Time after time, the same Chicago suburbs seem to be in the direct path of severe weather. Flooding, tornadoes, straight line winds — they’ve seen it all.
Officials with the National Weather Service confirmed the latest string of tornadoes tore through Homewood, Lansing, Wilmington, Tinley Park, Mokena, Monee in Illinois and St. John in northwest Indiana.
Before that, Ransom, Streator, Hazel Crest, Glen Ellyn, Country Club Hills, Harvey and more.
That’s just within the last couple weeks — and some of them were hit more than once in that stretch.
In fact, one Chicago suburb got hit by the same tornado twice in one storm.
So, is there a reason behind it or is it just a string of bad luck?
NBC 5 Storm Team Meteorologist Kevin Jeanes said a ridge in the jet stream, arching from the central Plains up through Minnesota and back down across the Great Lakes into Indiana and Ohio, has been locked in place for several separate weeks this summer.
It’s a typical summer pattern, but this year came with a few variations.
First, the region often gets a few heat waves where that ridge nudges farther north. That makes it hotter around Chicago, and keeps storms traveling along the ridge, or “ring of fire,” north of the Chicago area.
This year, that ridge has stayed farther south, which has steered all of the storms right through northern Illinois.
Second, there have been more ingredients in the atmosphere for severe storms than usual. The humidity has been higher, energy has been available and lift in the atmosphere has been higher – and there’s been a huge uptick in smaller-scale vortices developing across Iowa and Minnesota this year.
The upper level winds have been acting like a pitching machine, tossing storm after storm after storm over the same areas, all while winds at a lower level have been ushering in a ton of a moisture, adding to the instability.
And summer isn’t over yet as the Chicago area continues with a record-setting stormy season.
Why have the same areas been getting hit with severe weather this summer?
Time after time, the same Chicago suburbs seem to be in the direct path of severe weather. Flooding, tornadoes, straight line winds -- they've seen it all.
Officials with the National Weather Service confirmed the latest string of tornadoes tore through Homewood, Lansing, Wilmington, Tinley Park, Mokena, Monee in Illinois and St. John in northwest Indiana.
Before that, Ransom, Streator, Hazel Crest, Glen Ellyn, Country Club Hills, Harvey and more.
That's just within the last couple weeks -- and some of them were hit more than once in that stretch.
In fact, one Chicago suburb got hit by the same tornado twice in one storm.
So, is there a reason behind it or is it just a string of bad luck?
NBC 5 Storm Team Meteorologist Kevin Jeanes said a ridge in the jet stream, arching from the central Plains up through Minnesota and back down across the Great Lakes into Indiana and Ohio, has been locked in place for several separate weeks this summer.
It’s a typical summer pattern, but this year came with a few variations.
First, the region often gets a few heat waves where that ridge nudges farther north. That makes it hotter around Chicago, and keeps storms traveling along the ridge, or “ring of fire,” north of the Chicago area.
This year, that ridge has stayed farther south, which has steered all of the storms right through northern Illinois.
Second, there have been more ingredients in the atmosphere for severe storms than usual. The humidity has been higher, energy has been available and lift in the atmosphere has been higher - and there's been a huge uptick in smaller-scale vortices developing across Iowa and Minnesota this year.
The upper level winds have been acting like a pitching machine, tossing storm after storm after storm over the same areas, all while winds at a lower level have been ushering in a ton of a moisture, adding to the instability.
And summer isn't over yet as the Chicago area continues with a record-setting stormy season.