Six Months Later: A Look Back at April 9th, 2015

It's been six months since a devastating EF-4 tornado hit the town of Fairdale and Rochelle, and eleven tornadoes in total tracked across the state. It's one of those moments that you think "that won't happen here." But on Thursday April 9th, it did for the first time since the devastating EF-4 tornado in Washington, IL in 2013.

Multiple tornado warnings were issued at one point in the Stateline as a very potent storm system created 7 tornadoes for the Stateline area, and in total 11 tornadoes in the state. A strong low pressure system moved through Thursday, with its warm front firing up non-severe storms in the morning. These storms created outflow boundaries, or mini cold fronts, that were focal points for storm redevelopment later on. It was the incoming cold front that moved through in the late afternoon and early evening that created the severe super cell near Franklin Grove. With a lot of instability in place - an ingredient needed for strong storms - and a sharp change in the wind direction with height in the atmosphere(backing winds) the stage was set for very strong severe storms.

The super cell storm and EF-4 tornado began near Franklin Grove (Lee County) and tracked through Rochelle (Ogle County), then across 1-39 where it devastated the town of Fairdale (DeKalb County), where it then finally ended south of Belvidere (southern Boone County). This was a very long tracking tornado and caused two fatalities and a total of 22 injuries. Max winds were at 200mph.

There were 3 EF-0 tornadoes and 3 EF-1 tornadoes as well. You can see a track of the tornadoes below:

For more information on the tornado outbreak you can click here.