We are hearing about some damage, but at this point, no injuries.
In central Illinois, someone captured this photo of a twister touching down in Concord, Illinois, just west of Springfield. Another tornado was spotted in Steele, Missouri, in the far southeastern corner of that state.
The storms spawned a twister in Mechanicsburg, Illinois, east of Springfield.
Officials report the tornado destroyed at least seven buildings and snapped power poles.
Emergency officials say a tornado touched down in Arenzville in central Illinois.
National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Shimon says the Cass County emergency manager reported the tornado just before 3 p.m. Thursday near the town of Arenzville. That's about 50 miles west of Springfield.
Shimon says he hasn't received any reports of damage, but it "was definitely observed on the ground by several different sources."
He says a tornado watch will remain in effect until 7 p.m. for Christian, Morgan, Sangamon and Scott counties in central Illinois.
The line of thunderstorms moved rapidly eastward. Shimon says a tornado watch is in effect for Christian, Morgan, Sangamon and Scott counties until 7 p.m.
Cass County officials did not immediately respond to calls for comment.
32,000 without power in central Illinois
Ameren Illinois says about 32,000 customers were without power in the state after a line of storms moved through Illinois.
The utility reported the outages on Thursday evening. Affected areas included central, southern and eastern Illinois. That includes the Peoria and Pekin area, Urbana and south of Danville, Decatur, Shelbyville and the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis.
Ameren officials say they have crews assessing damage. They say they don't have an estimation time that power will be restored.
Ameren says it has about 1.2 million customers in the areas where outages were reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
