Wednesday afternoon's violent lakebreeze-induced thunderstorms, responsible for 63 mph gusts at Midway Airport, flooding and downed trees and power lines in Cicero and ripping part of a roof off Burbank's St. Lawrence High School while overturning a baseball dugout, producing slight injuries to a coach and player, are shown here from a distance in this spectacular photo taken by Jim Hancock far west suburban Sycamore, Illinois. Sycamore is in DeKalb County approximately 68 miles west of Chicago. Doppler radar scans put cloud tops at the height of these storms over Cook County (between 1 and 2 pm) at between 43,000 and 53,000 ft.
Dopper rain estimates--which, because of the presence of hail which can corrupt rainfall estimates off current generation Doppler radars---were put at more than 2.50 inches in sections of central Cook County. Veteran weather observer Frank Wachowski reports 0.78 inches fell at Midway Airport---but only 0.07 inches at his home in nearby Burbank. A caller from Cicero reported flooded streets and basements, confirming radar indications the storms' heaviest rains fell there and in a corridor from Oak Lawn to Elmwood Park. He is a 43-year resident of Cicero and says today's storm was among the worst he's seen. Converging low level winds along an inland-moving lake breeze front just after noon Wednesday, set the highly concentrated, flooding storms in motion and allow the thunderstorms to erupt, despite the presence of capping earlier today(comparatively warm air aloft which cuts into the rate at which temperatures fall with height). O'Hare topped out at 94-degrees for a second day. Weather Bug sensors indicated unofficial highs of 98-degrees at Burr Ridge and 97-degrees as Lemont, Alsip and DeKalb.
-Tom Skilling
Photos courtesy of Jim Hancock, Sycamore, Illinois
Dopper rain estimates--which, because of the presence of hail which can corrupt rainfall estimates off current generation Doppler radars---were put at more than 2.50 inches in sections of central Cook County. Veteran weather observer Frank Wachowski reports 0.78 inches fell at Midway Airport---but only 0.07 inches at his home in nearby Burbank. A caller from Cicero reported flooded streets and basements, confirming radar indications the storms' heaviest rains fell there and in a corridor from Oak Lawn to Elmwood Park. He is a 43-year resident of Cicero and says today's storm was among the worst he's seen. Converging low level winds along an inland-moving lake breeze front just after noon Wednesday, set the highly concentrated, flooding storms in motion and allow the thunderstorms to erupt, despite the presence of capping earlier today(comparatively warm air aloft which cuts into the rate at which temperatures fall with height). O'Hare topped out at 94-degrees for a second day. Weather Bug sensors indicated unofficial highs of 98-degrees at Burr Ridge and 97-degrees as Lemont, Alsip and DeKalb.
-Tom Skilling
Photos courtesy of Jim Hancock, Sycamore, Illinois
