Severe weather troubles weren’t limited to the Chicago area Thursday. Nearly 24 twisters, some with multiple vortices (smaller twisters rotating within a larger vortex) skipped across the Dakotas and Minnesota with thunderstorms which bombarded the region with mammoth hailstones. The hail reached 4.25 inches in diameter—the size of grapefruit—at New Prague, Minn., and Selfridge, S.D. And in Stanton, N.D., the hail is reported to have destroyed vehicles and induced severe structural damage to some buildings. Northfield, Minn., was pounded for 20 minutes by hail which varied from golf ball to softball size. Crop damage was reportedly severe in the hardest hit areas. That’s not surprising: No form of weather has historically inflicted heavier damage to U.S. crops other than flooding.
Lake and Mc Henry counties in Illinois hosted the area’s heaviest rains Thursday. Hebron, Ill., where 0.80” had fallen in the preceding 32 days, was walloped by 2.40”.
--By Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Meteorologist
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
