A Forgotten Tornado In Western Springs?

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL — In 1991, a tornado struck Western Springs. The Chicago Tribune reported at the time that two teens were killed as they rode in a car. Others were injured.

But the National Weather Service doesn't include the twister on its online map of tornado tracks from 1950 to 2017. The agency lists 39 fatalities in tornadoes in 1991, none in Illinois.

This bothers Peter Harrison, a La Grange Park resident who says he believes he witnessed the 1991 tornado.

On the afternoon of May 5, 1991, Harrison said he heard a report of funnel clouds to the west. The clouds were moving fast, with marble-sized raindrops, he said. He looked out his family room picture window.

"I could see ragged scud clouds quickly forming in an updraft, moving fast and twisting around left to right," Harrison said in an email to Patch. "Very quickly it seemed the clouds lowered and swooped towards me. A counterclockwise rotation was very apparent, although I did not see a defined funnel."

The wind increased and became so strong that Harrison said he backed up inside the doorway. It was over within seconds.

This all came to mind for Harrison after tornadoes struck Darien, Woodridge and Naperville last month. He decided to contact the National Weather Service with his recollection and a damage map that he originally made in 1991. He said he did not receive a response in 1991 or more recently.

Harrison calls himself a weather buff and a fan of the National Weather Service. But he said the lack of a response has always bothered him.

"Does it have to do with the fact that there was no active warning issued and there were fatalities?" Harrison said. "That seems unlikely given that it's well understood that warning perfection is not possible (especially 30 years ago) and it would certainly not be the first such un-warned incident. Or have my inquiries and reports simply not gotten to the right people?"

He said if he had unlimited resources, he would distribute flyers to all the homes near the trail of damage, asking for recollections.

"I'm pretty sure there would still be enough witnesses that it would add up to an interesting picture," he said. "Maybe not enough to officially designate the storm a tornado, but then again..."

Fatalities in tornadoes are rare. Of all the tornadoes in the United States in 2020, just 6 percent resulted in deaths, according to the National Weather Service.

When the recent twisters struck the suburbs, the tornado sirens did not go off in La Grange, La Grange Park, Western Springs and Countryside. They operate under a single 911 dispatch agency, which is responsible for the sirens. Officials said they were trying to figure out what happened.