This Chicago Area County Is The Most At Risk For Tornado Damage Nationwide

COOK COUNTY, IL — Cook County is more at risk for tornado damage that any other county in the U.S., according to a recent ranking from Home Gnome.

The home services website analyzed nearly 950 counties that had moderate to very high tornado risk per the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. Home Gnome considered factors including tornado frequency, anticipated annual losses, home age and whether building codes accounted for tornado resilience when determining the rankings.

“Tornadoes actually form from the ground up, not from the cloud down,” Jana Houser, associate professor of meteorology at The Ohio State University, said in a Home Gnome news release. “Cities and hills offer no protection, and tornadoes can strike anywhere.”

A section in America’s central region known as Tornado Alley sees the most activity, according to the website, which noted Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas average among the highest tornado counts nationwide, per the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center.

Coming in second in the ranking behind Cook County is St. Louis City in Missouri, followed by Jackson County, also in Missouri. The only other Illinois county in the top 10 is DuPage County, which ranked 10th.