Severe Storms Leave Damage in the Midwest

A cold front moving east has been producing numerous reports of hail, tornadoes, and strong wind gusts from Iowa to Ohio. Numerous tornado warnings were issued in the greater Chicago metro on Tuesday night. A ground stop was issued at Chicago O'Hare International Airport as travelers were forced to seek shelter, and flights were delayed and canceled.

Related Article - Severe Storms Wednesday

Severe storm reports in the last 24 hours show most of the action with over 10 reports of potential tornadoes that started Tuesday afternoon and lingered into Wednesday morning. An EF-2 tornado was confirmed in Grand Blanc, MI Tuesday night (60 miles north of Detroit) and is only the second tornado to ever touch down in the state in February - the previous February tornado was Feb 28, 1974.

As a strong cold front tore through states like Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, we received multiple reports of large hail, damaging winds, and a few tornadoes. This video came from Gary, IN Tuesday night of a clear funnel cloud coming down from the clouds.

Videos like this one circulated on social media as multiple cities and states were pummeled with hail overnight. This came out of the Chicago metro, about 30 miles south of Chicago O'Hare Airport.

All severe weather ingredients were in place for this severe weather threat: a powerful upper low swinging through the central U.S., energizing the upper atmosphere, and extremely warm and humid air at the surface. As you can see above, there were multiple reports of large hail from this system. Brownlee Park, MI, about 25 miles east of Kalamazoo, saw 2.50" hail Tuesday night, that's about the same size as a tennis ball!

Early Wednesday morning the same line of storms blasted through Ohio with a confirmed tornado east of Columbus in Jersey, and likely tornado damage to the west of the city too. Three tornadoes have been confirmed in the Columbus area including EF-1 and EF-2 damage.

Stay with WeatherNation as we continue to cover the damage and strength of the rare February tornado outbreak!