12-year anniversary of the Caledonia, Illinois Tornado
On Monday, November 22, 2010, an unseasonably warm day that brought record and close-to-record warmth across Northern Illinois and an abundance of warm air set the stage for an unstable environment ahead of a strong cold front that would work across the region later that afternoon. The end result was a line of severe storms along and ahead of the cold front that ended up producing a 16.4-mile-long EF-2 tornado with estimated winds of around 135 mph in two counties of Northern Illinois. The tornado was estimated to be around 50 to 200 yards wide, according to the National Weather Service in Chicago, Illinois.
The tornado first touched down around 3:04 PM in east-central Winnebago County, a mile east of Rock Cut State Park and about a quarter mile southwest of the Argyle-Harlem Road intersection. Near here, the tornado blew over a school bus with six people onboard who all suffered minor injuries and took down eleven high-tension electrical towers.
The tornado continued to track off to the northeast, where it entered west-central Boone County and headed towards the town of Caledonia, Illinois. The tornado traveled down the main drag of Caledonia, where it significantly damaged at least six buildings, caused minor damage to about 20 buildings, snapped and downed several large trees, and downed power lines. The tornado continues off to the northeast lifting around 3:23 PM just west of Larence, Illinois. One of the buildings that were hit by this tornado was also hit by a tornado back on January 7, 2008.
The video at the beginning and end of this story was captured by our own Will Wight, who arrived in Caledonia right after the tornado how gone through the town. Not too long after his arrival to the town, a resident pulled up behind him, stating that he received word his son was possibly stuck under a fallen tree in the backyard. Will and the resident went to check on the son and, thankfully, can report he was found safely inside their residence.
