A swath of intense wind damage produced by t-storms Wednesday night was concentrated in a 3 to 5 mile band wide from East Chicago and Gary in Lake County, Indiana southeast to Hobart and Merrillville and across Porter County. That’s the conclusion of a team from the National Weather Service which surveyed the area Thursday and attributed the damage to powerful straight line winds rather than a tornado. The team noted trees and corn were blown down uniformly in a southeast to south direction and lacked the rotary distribution which would have occurred in a tornado. Peak gusts were estimated as high as 100 m.p.h.
The storms have ushered the coolest air in nearly four weeks into the area. Chicago’s 77° high Thursday was the lowest daytime temp in 26 days. The cool-off sent downstate temps plummeting in the wake of thunderstorms—but not before Paducah reached 105°, its hottest reading in 4 decades.
-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.
