Friday’s 60 MPH Winds Aren’t Even Close to Illinois Records

With lots of power outages, trees downed, and traffic lights knocked out, it's pretty obvious that today’s (Friday, March 13th) wind is really strong, but Illinois has experienced much stronger winds in the past.

While we waited for the power to come back on this morning, we looked up the biggest wind gusts ever recorded in the Land of Lincoln and compared them to the strongest winds ever measured in the U.S. to see where we stack up.

But, even if Friday's winds aren't record-setting, they've sure caused a big mess going into the weekend.

If You Needed A Reminder That Northern Illinois Weather This Time Of Year Can Pack A Punch, Friday Is A Great Example

While those winds are strong enough to knock down tree limbs and cause power outages, they’re nowhere near the strongest winds ever recorded in Illinois, or even close to the most extreme winds seen across the United States.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), one of the strongest measured thunderstorm wind gusts in northern Illinois reached 104 mph in Pecatonica on July 5, 2003, when a powerful derecho raced through the region.

The National Weather Service data also lists an estimated 130-mph microburst in Streamwood in 1990, though meteorologists believe the wind speeds may have been overestimated using the original Fujita scale.

Then There Was That Time The Wind Blew A Train Off A Bridge

1912 was the year that the Titanic sank, and it was also the year that a powerful storm swept across Illinois and Indiana, bringing intense straight-line winds and what many historians believe may have been a tornado embedded in the system. One of the most incredible moments happened near Watseka, not far from the Illinois-Indiana border.

On April 20th, A passenger train traveling across a bridge over the Iroquois River suddenly encountered the violent winds. According to newspaper reports of the time, the gusts were so powerful that they literally pushed several railcars off the bridge and into the river below.

Meteorologists today believe winds capable of moving railcars like that likely exceeded 100 miles per hour, possibly much higher if a tornado was involved.

When it comes to record-setting winds in other places throughout the country, here are the top 5 recorded gusts (non-tornado) ever in the US:

• Mount Washington, New Hampshire: 231 mph (1934)

• Cannon Mountain, New Hampshire: 199 mph (1973)

• Ward Mountain, California: 199 mph (2017)

• Thule Air Base, Greenland (U.S. monitoring station): 207 mph (1972)

• Kirkwood Mountain, California: 209 mph (2020 measurement under review)