Severe weather stayed mainly to the north of our listening area Wednesday night, with severe thunderstorms causing heavy flooding in the area and spurring a tornado warning that lasted for more than an hour in Effingham County .

A tornado was spotted aloft near Brownstown in Fayette County and again just south of Altamont.

Fast-developing but slow-moving storm cells south of Springfield Wednesday evening produced several reports of tornadoes on the ground in Christian and Montgomery counties.

The National Weather Service office in Lincoln said it had received no reports of damage.

The first confirmed sighting was about 6:30 p.m., as Illinois State Police reported a small tornado on the ground in a field along Interstate 55 near Raymond, which is just across the Christian County border in Montgomery County.

Seven minutes later, the same tornado was seen near Morrisonville, in southern Christian County, by a trained weather spotter, the National Weather Service said.

And then at 6:56 p.m., another funnel cloud or tornado sighting was reported near Witt in eastern Montgomery County.

The tornado or tornadoes were moving in a east or northeasterly direction at an estimated 15 to 20 mph.