Midwestern Video Productions provides us another perspective on the eycatching cloud formation observed with Thursday morning's storms in the Chicago area. What's so fascinating and unusual in these shots is the fact this isn't the typical "shelf" or "roll" cloud ahead of an incoming thunderstorm. Such clouds, like the darkest clouds pictured here, are low based clouds which often blend into a non-descript backround low-altitude cloud mass or wall of rain. By contract, these formations Thursday morning occurred beneath "mid-level" formations provide the backdrop for the Wednesday morning's approaching showers and thunderstorms, which turned severe to Chicago's south. Hail up to 0.88" in diameter in Chicago's southern suburbs and wind gusts approaching 60 m.p.h. whipped downstate in the Bloomington area of central Illinois, accopanied the fast moving storms.
Photo courtesy of Midwestern Video Productions
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
