It's official -- Monday evening's fast-moving squall line unleashed at least three
tornadoes as it blasted across the area with lightning displays few here will soon
forget. Twisters were behind the damage in Griffith, Ind., hit by an EF-2 (Enhanced
Fujita scale-2) intensity tornado (111-135 m.p.h.), Bloomingdale in Du Page County,
where an EF1 twister (65-85 m.p.h.) struck, and Bolingbrook in Will County, where an
EF1 tornado (86-110 m.p.h.) was reported. Until Monday's storms, August had hosted
only 23 of the 119 summer-season twisters recorded since 1950 across the 14
counties closest to Chicago from southeast Wisconsin into northwest Indiana.
The 2.43 inches of rain that accompanied Monday's storms at O'Hare pushed
meteorological summer rainfall (since June 1) nearly five inches above the 137-year
average here. The deluge makes this summer the wettest here since 1993.
THUNDEROUS 6-INCH-PLUS CLOUDBURST DRENCHES NORTHWEST INDIANA BEFORE SUNRISE TUESDAY
As the intense t-storms slowed across the southern portion of the metro area and
moved into northwest Indiana early Tuesday morning, rainfall totals increased
significantly, peaking in excess of 6 inches in and around the Valparaiso, Ind., area.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
