Chicago’s 17th official 90° temperature of the year is on the books. Tuesday’s 91° high at O’Hare was August’s sixth 90°+ high and the city’s warmest temperature in three weeks. Other metro area thermometer readings Tuesday included 93° at Northerly Island and 95° at Gary, which was the metro area’s hot spot. In combination with the day’s muggy 70°+ Gulf Coast-level dewpoints, heat indexes at the two sites topped out at 104° and 105° respectively.
The heat provoked waves of powerful thunderstorms, which at one point, stretched from Kansas to Upper Michigan—some 60,000 ft. tall and accompanied by 80 mph wind gusts. At Crandon, WI (in upstate Forest County), t-storm winds downed trees and flipped a mobile home. Preliminary reports indicate the massive squall line may have spawned at least six twisters—four in Iowa and one in Nebraska.
-By Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
