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DECATUR — Straight-line winds racing ahead of a massive storm front and gusting to 80 mph knocked over semitrucks Wednesday in and around Central Illinois and spawned a weather condition known as “gustnadoes.”

State Police reported five truck drivers and passengers were treated in hospitals after two trucks were blown over on Interstate 70 in Clark County. Another one each was toppled on I-70 in Effingham and Cumberland counties and three trucks were flipped over on Interstate 55 between Elkhart and Lincoln.

The National Weather Service in Lincoln said the peak wind gust in the state was clocked at 80 mph in Piatt County. Macon County registered 66 mph winds at Decatur Airport but a channel of winds just south of the airport was estimated to pack gusts of 70-75 mph.

Weather service meteorologist Ed Shimon said his office heard of a lot of reports from people who thought they were seeing tornadoes but were actually witnessing the phenomenon of gustnadoes. These are swirling columns of air whipped up by a storm front and visibly spinning with dirt and dust but not directly connected to a thunderstorm like a true tornado.