
WTTW News Explains: What You Need to Know About Tornadoes
Clip: 6/4/2026 | 3m 2sVideo has Closed Captions
WTTW News Explains on the facts and fiction surrounding tornadoes.
WTTW News Explains on the common myths around tornadoes and how the weather events can hit Chicago.
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Chicago Tonight is a local public television program presented by WTTW
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WTTW News Explains: What You Need to Know About Tornadoes
Clip: 6/4/2026 | 3m 2sVideo has Closed Captions
WTTW News Explains on the common myths around tornadoes and how the weather events can hit Chicago.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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WTTW News Explains
In this Emmy Award-winning series, WTTW News tackles your questions — big and small — about life in the Chicago area. Our video animations guide you through local government, city history, public utilities and everything in between.Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipmany issues facing Chicago, tornadoes aren't on the list right?
Think again in tonight's edition of WT Tw News explains, Patty Wet Lee follows the yellow Brick road to clear up some of the myths surrounding the city.
And this weather phenomenon.
>> Toto, is possible?
I heard Chicago's tall buildings, keep it safe from tornadoes.
Think again, Dorothy.
No one knows when or how this myth about Chicago in tornado started.
But Mister Tornado himself flat out Mister could put the and its skyscrapers whose mister Tornado.
That would be the Lake University of Chicago.
Scientists tend Jeter.
Why should we believe him?
Well, this scale that rates for NATO intensity from EF 0 to 5 is literally named after him.
is for Tornadoes not only can touch down in Chicago.
They do.
So.
What else are we getting wrong about twisters for starters, the term tornado season is kind of misleading.
Well, it's true that most of the tornadoes recorded Illinois have hit between April June.
They've also struck the state every other month of the year and tornado alley.
That's another misconception.
Tornadoes have touched down all 50 states.
Twisters can form anywhere at any time.
That's what makes tornado so dangerous.
They're wildly unpredictable.
need is the perfect storm of weather conditions starting with the clash dry, cold air with warm, moist air.
This is the kind of atmospheric instability that produces thunderstorms now, not every thunderstorms spawned tornado, but sometimes and scientists don't fully understand why these conflicting currents starts inside underclass.
And if this final drops down from the cloud and touches the ground, it's a tornado Wiens inside.
Tornadoes have been measured at more than 300 miles per hour.
And even weakest twister can pack wallop with winds of 80 miles per hour.
It's jails in the debris they send line that caused so much damage, not a change in air pressure.
That's another myth.
Thanks to advanced technology, meteorologists are getting better at predicting when tornadoes might occur and warning people to take cover.
>> Air sirens were first used for tornado warnings in the 1970's.
Chicago has 112 of positioned every couple of miles across the city.
>> When they start wailing, that's door get indoors.
>> Because getting caught in a tornado is with good experience.
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