The heavens opened across a large swath of Illinois late Tuesday, unleashing
downpours that drenched western Illinois' Rock Island with 2 inches of rain. The
Chicago area -- needing rain -- didn't completely escape the thundery deluges. Late
evening Doppler radar scans tracked downpour-generating cloud towers that reached
heights of 41,000 feet.
Even taller Downstate storms, responsible for rainfall so heavy that flash-flood
warnings were necessary in Champaign County and for tree-limb-downing 65 m.p.h.
wind gusts across sections of LaSalle County, were scanned as high as 58,000 feet.
The storms originated in Kansas early Tuesday then swept into Missouri, where they
inundated an area near Memphis, Mo., in the northeast corner of the state, with 1.90
inches in just 30 minutes.
CHICAGO AREA FLIRTS WITH 90 DEGREES WHILE TRIPLE-DIGIT HEAT KEEPS THE SOUTH BROILING
Temperatures hit 89 degrees at Midway Tuesday but 90s weren't far away. Heat in the
Deep South and southern Plains included triple-digit highs -- among them 101
degrees at Memphis and 100 degrees at Little Rock, Ark.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
