June rolls out on sunny note; July starts warm

For the second straight afternoon showers fell in the Chicago area, but unlike
Saturday's blasts of hail and damaging winds, Sunday's storms did little more than turn
a pleasant summer day into a chilly evening. Temperatures dropped 10 degrees to the
mid-60s with the onset of the showers, and by evening readings had fallen into the
lower 60s under leaden showery skies.
Sunshine should return Monday and Tuesday as temperatures climb back toward
seasonable normals. A burst of warmth should send the mercury into the upper 80s by
Wednesday, but another round of thunderstorms along a cold front should bring in
cooler weather for the 4th of July.
SEVERE WEATHER BLASTS EASTERN U.S.
High winds and hail raked the East Sunday with nearly 150 reports of severe weather
through mid-evening. Two-inch-diameter hail battered Jacksonville in southeast South
Carolina, while high winds damaged trees and power lines from New England to
Alabama. Severe thunderstorms blew over a row of tents at a Huntsville, Ala., air show,
killing one and injuring a dozen other people.
This same storm system was responsible Friday night for winds estimated as high as
115 m.p.h. per hour just west of Omaha.
--By Steve Kahn, WGN Weather Center Meteorologist