23 Off-Season Tornadoes Confirmed In Illinois, 500 Homes Affected

Central Illinois residents on Monday continued assessing damage from rare December tornadoes, including a half-mile-wide one that injured at least 20 people.The state’s severe weather was part of a line of thunderstorms that raked areas of the central U.S. late Friday and into Saturday, killing one person in Missouri. The National Weather Service confirmed tornadoes in Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma. And in Arkansas, at least three tornadoes that largely caused property and structural damage were confirmed in the northwest and southwest parts of the state. Peak months for tornadoes in much of the Midwest are April and June, according to the weather service. But at least 23 tornado touchdowns on Saturday have been confirmed in Illinois, said Dan Smith, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Lincoln, Illinois, office.