WEATHER SNAP SHOTS: April 2007 Archives

A small tornado touched down over the Lakewood Nursing Center in central Plainfield Thursday afternoon and continued north into Bolingbrook near 127th and Essington before retreating into the clouds only minutes later. The touchdown occurred at 2:59 p.m. Jeremy Hylka, reporter for WJOL radio, accompanied Jim Allsopp of the NWS-Chicago Forecast Office as he led a survey team to investigate storm damage. Jeremy tells us that the survey team’s Initial findings indicate Thursday’s twister was an unconventional tornado—an especially small, short lived twister which storm chasers have dubbed “landspout”.

A microburst was ruled out as the cause of Thursday’s damage—a conclusion supported by a video of the storm shot by the Plainfield Fire Protection District. Microbursts demand a layer of dry air in the mid levels of the atmosphere in order to form. Atmospheric measurements Thursday indicated such a dry layer didn't exist—that the atmosphere above NE Illinois was saturated with moisture and unlikely to foster microbursts.

Damage from Thursday’s storm was fairly minor. The twister’s winds removed a small portion of the Lakewood Nursing Home's roof. Several cars were reportedly flipped by the storm and lawn furniture and a trampoline was tossed about by the small twister's winds.

Doppler radar scanned the storm cloud tops at up to 35,000 ft. at the time it reached Plainfield. A more damaging tornado is reported to have touched down some time later (around 4:40 p.m.) farther east in LaPorte County, Indiana, where there were injuries.

The dramatic shots you see here are of another storm sweeping across NE Illinois about the same time Thursday’s twister touched down. They depict a wall cloud-like cloud mass beneath the base of a thunderstorm as viewed from Rockdale, Illinois—just south of Plainfield. The photographer was Jennifer Scamardi. A “wall cloud” is an isolated lowering of the cloud base which marks the region of t-storm's strongest updrafts and is a feature beneath which a tornado vortex often "spins up". Fortunately that didn’t happen in this case. Many thanks to Jennifer Scamardi for sharing these remarkable shots with us.

--Tom Skilling
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist

These pictures were taken by Jennifer Scamardi in Rockdale this afternoon between 4:00 and 4:30 pm looking southeast.




Photo Courtesy: Jennifer Scamardi

Big rains produced flooding over sections of the Chicago metro area overnight. Through early afternoon Wednesday, Frank Wachowski reported 1.58" at Midway Airport while O'Hare tallied 1.34". Among the area's heaviest reports through mid-morning Wednesday were 2.81" at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Romeoville, 2.45" at south suburban Lansing, 2.25" two miles southeast of Yorkville and 2.48" at Peotone—also to the south of Chicago. Daniel Dambrowski of Valaparaiso, Indiana reported the heaviest rain tally of all—4.00" (check out the picture of Daniel's rain gauge). Amanda Pickett of Crown Point, Indiana forwarded us a picture of geese swimming in standing water which covered her front year.

More rain's on the way. Rain coverage and intensity is to pick up again Wednesday night into Thursday morning and another 0.50"-1" of rain is possible with locally heavier totals possible in area's affected by embedded thunderstorms.

Photo Credit: Amanda Pickett

Rain gauge registering 4" at Valparaiso, Indiana after Tuesday night/Wednesday morning downpours

Photo Credit: Photo courtesy of Daniel Dombrowski

This picture from Carl Frystak in Antioch, Ill. shows just how heavy the snow is. Carl says:

"The snow is coming down so hard and wet here in Antioch it uprooted a very large tree on our property" PHOTO COURTESY: C. Frystak, Antioch, Illinois

Geri Morse, of Gurnee, Ill. sent us this photo of a mourning dove tending to her nest despite Wednesday's snow. Geri writes: "This mourning dove's nest is on our deck in Gurnee. She sat patiently
as the snow accumulated around her. "


PHOTO COURTESY: Geri Morse, Gurnee, Ill.

The Cubs Home Opener Monday included the first snowflakes to fall on an opener at Wrigley Field in four years. An upper disturbance produced light snow showers and sprinkles much of the afternoon and evening Monday. Amanda Pickett of Crown Point, Indiana photographed these flurries as she was doing dishes and passed it along to us. Thanks Amanda!

PHOTO COURTESY: Amanda Pickett

Not only Chicago and the Midwest are being affected by the current April cold snap. Snow and record breaking cold cover much of the South and Southeast. Our colleague Richard Koeneman sent along this picture from his home near Asheville, North Carolina depicting the beauty of today's late-season 4.7" snowfall. However, beyond the beauty of the snow lies the reality of killed or damaged vegetation and lost crops.

Richard tells us that temperatures records in the Southeast are not just being broken by a degree or two, but they are being shattered by as much as 5-10º. ... the fruit crop (apples, pears, cherries, etc) and early vegetable crop is being heavily damaged from Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia across Tennessee and the Carolinas north into Pennsylvania. The local apple growers in the Asheville area are saying the crop is already 80-100% gone, and the lowest temperatures are not expected until tonight. " [Saturday night/Sunday morning]

There were lots of daytime 70s and nighttime 50s during the last 2-3 weeks in Asheville and highs in the 80s farther south including plenty of record high max temps and record high min temps as well .. and the fruit trees were all blooming. Now, the whole area is experiencing lows in the 20s and teens for 2-3 nights. According to a TV report, an apple grower whose family has been in the business near Asheville since 1910 said they have never lost more than 70% of their apple crop to spring freezes, but he estimates his loss now is already "near 100%", with colder temps still to come. The cold is making big news down here.

Steve Kahn WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune Meteorologist

Photo Courtesy: Richard Koeneman