The same cold front responsible for early Wednesday’s dazzling cloud-to-ground lightning and the resulting flurry of power outages and flight delays here, spawned new waves of violent t-storms across sections of 8 states much of the day. By nightfall, more than a dozen twisters were among the 260 reports of severe weather which flooded in to the Storm Prediction Center from the nation’s mid-section.
While soaring temps shattered a 91-year old record in downstate Windsor, where the mercury topped out at 91°, records also perished at Decatur (89°) and Palestine, Illinois (91°). Storms exploded to life along the sharp demarcation between the Chicago area’s 40s and that heat and humidity farther south.
Hastings, Nebraska was hit hard by repetitive waves of t-storms which yielded 5” of rain and damaging 60-70 m.p.h. storm gusts. Meantime, 4.25” diameter hail pounded Chariton and Boone counties in Missouri.
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
