Severe storms that swept across the area Monday night spurred reports of tornadoes in Naperville and DuPage County, according to the National Weather Service.
Zachary Yack, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville, said Tuesday that the agency was surveying 29 different paths of potential tornado damage from the storms.
Areas being investigated included parts of western DuPage County between Naperville and Wheaton and north of Aurora running across Interstate 88 as well as spots near Romeoville and Joliet in Will County, areas south of Rockford and in DeKalb County near Sycamore, and locations in Elmhurst, Oak Park, Kankakee County and northwest Indiana near Cedar Lake, Yack said.
Confirming tracks as definitive tornadoes will likely take a few days, he said.
Whether or not storms wrought confirmed twisters, winds reached high speeds through DuPage and the larger Chicago metropolitan area, Yack said. Across DuPage, gusts were in the 60- to 70-miles per hour range. A maximum wind gust of 60 mph was reported at DuPage Airport in West Chicago and 75 mph at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, he said.
In Naperville, about 20 roads were impacted by downed trees and storm debris, but there were no reports of major damage, city spokeswoman Linda LaCloche said. Public works employees are removing trees and tree branches in public areas, and the city has announced residents will not need to use yard waste stickers between Wednesday and July 24 to help with the clean-up efforts.
High flow along the DuPage River left the Naperville Riverwalk closed, though LaCloche said the city was still in the “safe zone” as far as water flooding past riverbanks.
“We are still monitoring it,” she said. “Last I heard, it was still about four inches left to the top. We’ll be monitoring it throughout the day. Obviously, we’re hoping it recedes but we’re still in the safe zone right now.”
The east branch of the DuPage River at Bolingbrook was observed at 18.75 feet as of 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, about 1.25 feet short of reaching the minor flooding stage, according to the National Weather Service’s Office of Water Prediction.
The west branch of the DuPage River near Naperville was observed at 7.64 feet as of 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, just over 1.3 feet short of reaching its “action stage,” which the weather service defines as the stage of a rising stream where some sort of mitigation action is needed in preparation for possible significant hydrologic activity.
LaCloche said that going into Monday night’s storms, city officials “had a feeling that if we hit two inches of rainfall,” the impact to DuPage River through Naperville “could be worrisome for our downtown and municipal center” but that rain totals did not end up reaching that high.
“We’re happy about that, obviously,” she said.
DuPage County generally received around 0.6 to 0.8 inches of rain from the storms, Yack said.
LaCloche said that downtown Naperville was not impacted by flooding nor was ongoing road construction in the city.
