More than 200 tornadoes have hit Illinois this year. How come?
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.So far this year 207 tornadoes and counting have touched down in Illinois. That figure may rise as officials continue working through the remaining post-storm assessments, according to the National Weather Service. The tornado season also has yet to finish, but it has already handily topped the previous record of 142 funnel clouds set just two years ago, according to Trent Ford, the Illinois state climatologist. This is the third year in a row that Illinois has experienced a triple-digit tornado season; the state’s historical average is closer to 50.“It’s just anything beyond what we would expect,” Ford said.The dramatic surge in Illinois and throughout the Midwest contrasts with a decreasing trend of twisters in the Great Plains, the region traditionally billed as Tornado Alley. Experts are still working through the data, trying to understand whether it has been in
