A line of powerful, swift-moving t-storms threatens to rake sections of the Chicago area Tuesday morning after battering the Dakotas and Minnesota with 60 m.p.h. gusts and hail the size of golf balls. Hailstones produced by the 55,000 ft. tall storms covered the ground to a depth of 3” at Fort Ripley, Minn. More than 100 reports of severe weather had been logged late Monday evening by the Storm Prediction Center.
The squall line which could sweep parts of northern Illinois early Tuesday, is referred to as a derecho by meteorologists—a feature noted for its bow-shaped appearance on weather radar screens and its ability to endure for hours, producing wind damage over hundreds of miles of terrain. Another derecho Sunday night into Monday morning, left a swath of damage from the Dakotas south to Missouri.
Blistering heat—like the 107° record high at Rapid City, S.D. Monday—is fueling the t-storm eruptions.
--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.
