High winds and scattered thunderstorms swept through the south suburbs Sunday afternoon, leaving several without power and some damage, including downed tree limbs.
Kevin Doom, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said most of the damage occurred in northwest Indiana, though some areas in the far south suburbs were affected by the high winds.
The weather service is investigating whether tornadoes touched down during the storm, according to Doom.
“The tornadoes that tend to occur on the leading edge of those storms, like we saw yesterday, tend to be very short lived and a little bit hard to kind of point out, even after the fact,” Doom said.
A tornado watch was issued for parts of Illinois including southeastern Cook County, Indiana and Michigan, according to the weather service’s Facebook page.
Doom said some wind gusts reached as high as 80 mph Sunday.
“When we go to look out at the damage, the damage will kind of tell us what sort of winds we were dealing with,” Doom said.
ComEd spokesperson John Schoen said in the utility’s territory, which encompasses most of northern Illinois, about 17,000 customers were affected by Sunday’s weather. Power has been restored to all affected customers, Schoen said.
WGN reported that most of the power outages appeared to be in the south suburbs around Tinley Park, Frankfort and Homewood, according to the ComEd outage map Sunday afternoon.
Doom said the weather service in Chicago received a few storm reports from Steger and Chicago Heights, but the storms were mostly scattered, with the heaviest concentration in parts of northern Indiana.
Steger fire Chief Michael Long said he drove through the town after the storm passed and observed minimal damage.
“Shockingly, we had almost nothing,” Long said. “Maybe the tornado from last week took everything down already. We had a tiny little tree that I would barely even consider calling it a tree that was blown over somebody’s grass, but that was about it.”
Homewood Mayor Rich Hofeld said there was some damage in the town, but most of it was minimal. A few areas had downed trees, and the viaduct near the north side of the town was flooded, which he said happens whenever humidity increases, he said.
“Nothing like the tornados we had last summer,” Hofeld said. “We’re blessed.”
A line of severe thunderstorms are expected to hit the Chicago area again on Wednesday between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., the weather service posted on Facebook. The weather service is uncertain whether lingering storms expected Tuesday night will impact the severe weather potential in some areas, the post states.
smoilanen@chicagotribune.com