CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
A tornado warning was in effect Sunday, and reports of a funnel cloud-sighting had some Illinois residents worried.
The National Weather service confirmed a tornado did briefly touch down Sunday at Volkening Lake in Schaumburg around 2:30 p.m.
A water spout was also reported in Montriose Harbor, pea sized hail was also seen and the highest registered wind gust was 80 mph on the lake near Wilmette.
Between 0.5 in. and 2 in. of rain fell on the area.
A very strong storm system has been pounding southern and central California this week with severe storms, heavy rain and waterspouts.
One such waterspout was shot by WFLD's sister station KTTV in Los Angeles.
That system is now on the move toward the upper Midwest and Great Lakes region. It will bring Chicago a weekend of heavy rain and possibly severe storms.
This type of storm system is more typical in late winter and early spring. However, this year our spring season of severe weather and rain was unusually quiet.
Instead we experienced heat, extreme drought and three damaging derecho winds events.
The United States has a main severe weather season during the spring and early summer fueled in part by the jet stream as it lifts northward toward Canada for the summer months.
But there is also secondary severe weather season in the fall when the jet stream is headed back south as part of the winter weather pattern over north America. That is what we are seeing now as the jet stream aloft forms a deep trough to our west with a low level jet at the surface which will pump ample Gulf moisture into our area on very strong south and southwest winds.
As the storm system lifts northeastward toward Chicago the warm front will pass us Saturday morning. Temperatures will rise in the pre-dawn hours and strong storms with heavy rain are possible into the early afternoon. We may get a brief break from the rain Saturday afternoon, but as the cold front approaches late Saturday night we will see strong storms once again with a possible bow echo and damaging winds.
Heavy rain and storms could linger into Sunday afternoon. Rainfall amounts as seen in the three forecast models below could range from 1-3 in.
Tornadoes are also possible, but they are most likely to develop just south and north of the Chicago area.
There is also the possibility of localized flooding across Chicago if the storm train moves over one area continually.
Regardless of how this event unfolds it could be one of the bigger severe weather events seen across the nation this year.
