Two more tornadoes yesterday (1 in Mississippi and 1 in Louisiana) brings the preliminary total for the month of January to 70 already. The vast majority of those tornadoes struck the deep south. The last three years the US has averaged 17 tornadoes during the month of January. This is now the 3rd most active start to a year in terms of tornadoes since 1950.
While tornadoes in January are rarer for northern states, Illinois is certainly not immune to twisters during this normally cold month. The state has seen about 30 tornadoes during the month since 1950. The bar graph below shows the peak months in Illinois are April, May and June.
One noteworthy January tornado because of its location and video documentation, occurred on January 7th, 2008. It was the most northernmost tornado to hit Illinois in January, touching down in Harvard. A camera mounted on the train shows how powerful tornadoes (even January tornadoes) can be as the cars of the train are swept of the track by the ferocious winds.
Illinois state climatologist Jim Angel has a summary of Illinois' January tornadoes on his blog. The map below shows where January tornadoes have touched down across the state. Notice the lack of tornadoes in the immediate Chicago area but the otherwise random distribution of tornado tracks.
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