Travel at Chicago O’Hare Airport Back on Track After Tornado Warning

Chicago O’Hare International Airport was getting back on track on Tuesday morning, just hours after a tornado reportedly touched down just outside the airport’s gates.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), a sting of dangerous storms across Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana included a tornado just outside of O’Hare on Tuesday night. The storms caused major delays at the airport, with passengers on social media writing that passengers were stuck on the tarmac during the tornado warning as winds shook idling planes.

According to reports, the storms were bad enough to cause air traffic controllers at O’Hare to abandon the tower as passengers remained on the airport’s runway.

“Tornado Warnings are in effect for ALL of Cook County, including the City of Chicago until 10:00 PM CDT. Seek shelter until the storms move past,” the NWS’ warning, issued on Tuesday night, read.

The storms produced major disruptions at O’Hare, forcing delays of more than 30% of its daily schedule and canceling another 64 flights, which amounts to about 5% of its daily schedule, according to FlightAware. It also caused issues at Chicago Midway, which saw 114 flights delayed, and 35 cancelled on Tuesday.

The storms wrapped up early on Tuesday morning, with the NWS dropping its tornado watches and other warnings by 5 a.m.

And, as of early Tuesday morning, things were back on track at O’Hare, with just 1% of all departures canceled and another 1% delayed at O’Hare. There remains a larger impact on arrivals, with 5% of all arrivals into O’Hare canceled on Tuesday (almost 60 flights) and another 2% delayed.