Towering thunderstorms bombarded the Plains and western Midwest on Thursday,
spawning dozens of reports of twisters in Nebraska and Kansas and unleashing
drenching rains and tennis-ball-size hail as far east as Iowa. A powerful new eastbound
spring storm was behind the latest severe weather outbreak. The system threatens the
Chicago area with its own share of weather woes Friday.
Evening Doppler radar scans in the region put the blockbuster storm's cloud tops at
60,000 feet -- nearly twice the cruising altitude of jetliners. Rainfall hit 4 inches
northwest of Des Moines at Jefferson, Iowa, and topped 3 inches at O'Neill, Neb. By late
evening, 10 states from eastern New Mexico to Iowa were under tornado, thunderstorm
and flash-flood watches.
ONLY 2 DAYS LEFT IN COOLEST METEOROLOGICAL SPRING OF LAST 6
With the clock ticking on the March through May meteorological spring season,
Chicago temperatures are more than a degree below normal and more than 4 degrees
cooler than a year ago. It's the coolest spring here in six years.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
