Chicago's north and northwest suburbs suffered a direct hit by powerful thunderstorms
late Wednesday, with flooding and wind-whipped downpours even as lightning arched
earthward up to 1,300 times in just 10 minutes. Tree limbs snapped from Crystal Lake
in McHenry County into sections of southern Lake County while motorists scrambled
for the shoulders of area roads as visibilities diminished in the blinding deluges. Gusts
hit 60 m.p.h. in far northwest suburban Lake in the Hills and 50 m.p.h. at Long Grove
while hails measuring 0.5 to 1 inch in diameter peppered Arlington Heights and
Algonquin. In Barrington, 2.10 inches of rain came down in just 30 minutes sending
temperatures diving 20 degrees.
After radar scans measured cloud tops which reached to 55,000 feet. A second wave of
storms, erupted late Wednesday evening from towering 49,000-foot clouds.
CITY OFFICIALS DECLARED A SWIMMING BAN AS LAKE LEVELS GYRATED
Wednesday's fast moving thunderstorms produced at least two seiches Wednesday
afternoon and evening. Seiches occur when thunderstorms set up gyrating lake levels.
Water levels shifted as much as 2 feet in Wednesday's seiches.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
