Thunderstorms hit the area in a series of powerful waves Wednesday, prompting severe weather watches and warnings and targeting a multi-county east/west corridor to Chicago’s south for the meanest meteorological assault. The wild weather followed Chicago’s first official May 80°. By late evening, sections of Iroquois, Kankakee, and Livingston counties—east into Indiana’s Jasper and Newton counties had suffered storm damage ranging from downed trees to snapped utility poles. Thundery downpours swamped sections of Kankakee County stranding cars in high water. 2.60” fell at Bonfield while 2.80” was reported just northwest.
The strongest of Wednesday’s storms towered into the stratosphere—an atmospheric layer through which temperatures warm with height rather than cool—a situation which checks the vertical cloud development of all but the most powerful storms.
-Tom Skilling
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
