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MASSIVE TORNDO OUTBREAK - IL, IA, WI... (Original Post) 2naSalit Friday OP
Oh no, I hate that crap! Brenda Friday #1
Stay safe, all! SheltieLover Friday #2
Good info Maninacan Friday #3
I used to live on... 2naSalit Friday #5
There's something coming at you! 2naSalit Friday #13
Missed Me Maninacan Friday #15
Thank goodness... 2naSalit Friday #17
Random off the charts weather systems blow in and blow up. Passages Friday #4
I'm concerned... 2naSalit Friday #6
We share that fear. All of this is connected imho to climate change. Passages Friday #10
Supposed to hit here after midnight. Emile Friday #7
Stay safe! Passages Friday #11
Good wishes canetoad Friday #8
This is just crazy... 2naSalit Friday #9
Batten down and stay safe folks malaise Friday #12
OMG! I remember reading about this probable forecast wnylib Friday #14
Trump cut the budget for weather balloons last year, and now we have gaps in coverage NickB79 Friday #16

Brenda

(2,077 posts)
1. Oh no, I hate that crap!
Fri Apr 17, 2026, 05:05 PM
Friday

I have lived through two horrific, historic tornado outbreaks in my life so far: one in Ohio, one in the Deep South.

Hope people take the warnings seriously and prepare, follow the local weather news and live through it.

2naSalit

(103,359 posts)
5. I used to live on...
Fri Apr 17, 2026, 06:22 PM
Friday

Either side of there. Was in Algonquin, IL when I was married decades ago and Madison, WI & Mt Horeb, WI when I got single afterward. I remember bad storm days like this but they might not have been this bad.

Stay Safe!

Maninacan

(318 posts)
15. Missed Me
Fri Apr 17, 2026, 08:35 PM
Friday

Very close, took the pups down to the basement. A pine tree snapped and fell across the driveway.
Got it cleared with the battery chainsaw.



2naSalit

(103,359 posts)
17. Thank goodness...
Fri Apr 17, 2026, 10:25 PM
Friday

It was only that. Last time I was in the vicinity of a twister, I actually wasn't there but my vehicle was and though there was a lot of damage done to the buildings and many trees where it was parked, four tall trees laid down around it and didn't touch it. I did have to wait for the guys with the saws to cut them up so I could leave. Truly surreal.

2naSalit

(103,359 posts)
9. This is just crazy...
Fri Apr 17, 2026, 06:36 PM
Friday

Haven't seen tornado outbreaks like this since the mid 1970s. I used to live in that area in Wisconsin and Illinois.

This is really bad and is the third or fourth day this week that these kind of storms have been happening. Glad I went further east for my last move! We'll get some of the rain but the tornado stuff will not be coming this far east, at least not likely.

wnylib

(26,239 posts)
14. OMG! I remember reading about this probable forecast
Fri Apr 17, 2026, 07:50 PM
Friday

for today in the Midwest when checking yesterday for any threatening weather in my region (eastern Great Lakes). There was a tornado warning Wednesday not far from me and we've had some bad thunderstorms here this past week so I've been checking weather to the West of us since westerly winds often bring storms this way.

Hope people stay safe. From what I read, It was expected to get really bad in the Midwest today.

NickB79

(20,389 posts)
16. Trump cut the budget for weather balloons last year, and now we have gaps in coverage
Fri Apr 17, 2026, 08:40 PM
Friday
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/weather-balloons-stop-trump-cuts-forecasts-less-accurate-rcna198055

Twice a day — at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET — meteorologists simultaneously launch the balloons, which are equipped with instruments called radiosondes that measure temperature, humidity and wind speed. They rise about 15 feet per second for two hours, traveling through layers of the atmosphere and sending pings of data back using radio waves.

When the air gets too thin, the balloons pop and fall back to Earth with little parachutes — mission complete.

Data from the balloons feeds into weather models that are the backbone of forecasts across the United States, whether they’re delivered by a local television broadcaster or on your iPhone.

But many of the release sites — at least 10 in the continental United States — have suspended or limited launches because of the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Weather Service staff.


Expect a lot more "unforeseen" extreme weather events to occur, with much less warning.
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