Naperville felt wrath of June 20 tornado
Storm was strongest in 110 years; city has been hit by other severe weather events
The June 20 EF-3 tornado was the strongest on record to touch down in Naperville in the last 110 years.
Before 2007, tornadoes were rated on the Fujita scale, or F Scale, based on damage intensity. The Enhanced Fujita scale, or EF Scale, which was instituted in February 2007, rates tornadoes based on estimated wind speeds and 28 damage indicators, such as building type, structures and trees.
National Weather Service records show Naperville has experienced three tornadoes rated on the F Scale. Two were F-2 tornadoes, and one was an F-3.
The one June 20 was the worst on record, with winds in excess of 140 mph leaving eight people injured, one house destroyed, 20 uninhabitable, 130 badly damaged and dozens of huge trees uprooted.
Nov. 11, 1911
For Naperville residents, Nov. 11, 1911, was day of dramatic weather changes that included summerlike heat, an F-2 tornado and blizzard conditions within 24 hours.
The Naperville Clarion reported residents were wore “shirt sleeves” on Saturday because of the “high hot south wind” that caused unseasonably warm temperatures.
“After a day of summer heat and high hot south wind, a ripping, twisting electrical storm broke at about 6 o’clock and carried destruction to many localities,” the Clarion reported.
The newspaper said as the thermometer headed downward through the night, the rain first turned to sleet and then to snow, “driven by a genuine winter gale.”
The shirt sleeves were replaced by “overcoats, caps and furs on Sunday.”
The Clarion reported the barn on Calvin Stack’s farm at Big Woods was demolished by the wind and a number of cattle were killed after being pinned under fallen beams.
“Joe Lecher, who is the tenant, and his hired man were in the barn milking when the storm broke. The crackling of timbers warned them of their danger and they left the building just in time,” the article on the storm said.
In addition to the farm, there were reports that two windmills were demolished and three shacks and farm buildings at the Edward Sanatorium damaged.
March 24, 1913
Although not listed as a significant tornado by the National Weather Service, Naperville residents in 1913 might have begged to differ.
A 125-foot section of the four-story brick Naperville Lounge Co. (it would be renamed the Kroehler Manufacturing Co. in 1915) was blown down when a storm hit Naperville and the surrounding area on March 24, 1913, according to the Naperville Clarion.
Also in town, the roof on Tom’s Feed Store was peeled off, the city building north of the YMCA lost part of its roof and a large window on the side of the First Evangelical Church was broken.
Numerous losses in the country were reported, including barns, windmills and houses and other buildings were damaged.
Except for the house, all of the structures on the what had been the Nadelhoffer farm were damaged, a large tool shed and other small buildings on Maple Knoll farm were blown over, and “the cement silo on the former Leesley place was toppled over,” according to the Clarion.
The Clarion said the most severe damage was to Dan Schwartz’s barn. In addition
to the barn being demolished, six head of cattle were killed.
Aug. 24, 1971
Six houses were damaged and one person was injured in Naperville when an F-2 hit shortly after 7 p.m. Aug. 24, 1971.
The Naperville Sun reported garages were flattened and the living areas of houses exposed in the Maplebrook neighborhood north of 75th Street and trees were downed throughout the city.
“Most of the heavy damage caused by the high winds and skipping squall was on Tupelo, Atlas, Catalpa, Hercules, Olympus, Sandpiper, Tamarack and Clyde drive,” the Sun said.
The storm left about $500,000 in damage in its wake.
March 12, 1976
The storm arrived without warning at 12:56 p.m. March 12, 1976, and “blitzed
a path from the Knoch Park Little League diamonds” northeast to Beau Bien apartments in Lisle in a matter of minutes, according to a Naperville Sun report.
The F-3 tornado passed through the city on its way from Oswego to Villa Park, but it did not demolish any buildings like the EF-3 tornado did on Sunday.
Hardest hit was the Naperville Racquet Club, which lost two walls and part of its roof as the twister crossed the open field north of Chicago Avenue.
“There were nearly 80 people in the racquet club at the time, half of them on the courts and half waiting to get on,” the clubs manager-owner Kim Stedman told the Sun.
Despite the damage to the racquet club, no one was severely injured.