Southerly winds gusted to gale force under Wednesday's sunny skies, downing these tree limbs west of Chicago in Lee County's Franklin Grove. Anthony Parks took these photographs which clearly show you don't need thunderstorms to produce damaging winds. Wind gusts 40 mph and higher were detected by several of our WeatherBug sensors across the area. My colleague Eric Sorensen, who's Chief Meteorologist at WREX-TV in Rockford, who called Anthony Parks photos to our attention, correctly note these winds were of tropical storm strength! And, the powerful winds are likely to continue Wednesday night through Thursday.
Tom Skilling
PHOTO COURTESY: Anthony Parks
