This Day in History September 18, 1886

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By AlexiusHoratius [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Talk about a scary moment in weather history, but one that claimed no lives!  On this date in 1886, a tornado moved across the Des Plaines river in Illinois, and it hit Joliet, Illinois.  There was a loud roar when that warned the residents about the tornado, and as a result, there were no fatalities.  The tornado did destroy 20 homes, 10 barns, two factories, and a grain elevator.  There were twenty people who were injured.  And the most unusual thing was that a bridge (which remained intact) moved two blocks!  Can you imagine?

For more information, please check out:

http://www.examiner.com/article/weather-history-september-18-record-temps-storms-snow-wind-tropics-1

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/trivia/septriv.php