Videos Show Tornado Tearing Into Sycamore Yesterday

Yesterday afternoon, it got a little weather crazy in and around the Rockford area, with thunder and lightning, heavy winds, and the storm sirens going off.

Luckily for us, the Rockford area made it through the storms with relatively little damage and no injuries, but some suburban cities really took it on the chin from Mother Nature's summer wrath.

Take Sycamore, for example. Reports of damage to trees and power lines began pouring in last night at around 6pm, along with a report of a tornado from weather spotters.

NBC-5 Chicago:

A family near Sycamore showed NBC 5 reporters twisted hunks of metal and broken trees in their backyard.
“We started seeing storm clouds spinning in a circle. We were all looking up at this huge triangle coming down,” Mary Wetzel said. “Everything was still. We saw it forming, and heard the humming sound.”
Just behind the Wetzel family home, pieces of a barn were strewn across yards and a field.

Getty Images

It wasn't just Sycamore that felt the brunt of Northern Illinois' severe weather system. ABC-7 meteorologist Tracy Butler says that the northeast part of Illinois had at least 15 reports of tornadoes forming in the air or touching down on the ground.

Some of the other places that reported sightings of tornadoes include Kirkland in Ogle County, and several spots in McHenry County. Even Chicago's O'Hare Airport had to evacuate the control tower for about half an hour while the strong storms passed through.

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