Stillman Valley Tornado Activity Caught On Video as Storms Slam Illinois

Storms swept through Northern Illinois yesterday, bringing much-needed rain along with dangerous weather conditions, including reported tornado activity near Stillman Valley with some of it caught on video.

Severe Weather in Illinois

For several days Northern Illinois residents had been warned that severe weather could move in midweek, and Mother Nature certainly delivered on Wednesday!

As a homeowner who has been out 2-3 times a day watering newly planted grass seed, I was super thankful to see all that rain come down yesterday afternoon, but many residents in the 815 were treated to a much scarier sight.

A friend of mine who lives in Stillman Valley shared these videos on Facebook yesterday, and I would have completely freaked out if I saw this in the sky near my home:

Yes, it was absolutely trying to form a tornado, but thank God it did not!

Dangerous Heat Wave Moving Into Northern Illinois

If there is one thing I hate about summer in the Midwest it is the humidity. I do not enjoy feeling sweaty and swollen all the time, and I really dislike when the air is so heavy it feels hard to breathe, but guess what, friends? We are about to get hot with a major heat wave, so you better start preparing your body and home for it now!

We may not be able to do anything to stop temperature from nearing near 100 degrees, but there are a few things we can do to keep some of that heat out of our homes according to ready.gov:

• Check, repair or replace weather stripping around windows and doors.
• Keep window drapes, shades, and blinds shut.
• Use window deflectors that are designed to reflect heat back outside.
• If you have an attic fan, turn it on to get heat out of your attic.

The heat indexes we are expecting this weekend into early next week are dangerous, so make sure you drink plenty of fluids and keep yourself and all animals inside!