wind damage – Illinois State Climatologist

June 8, 2015

Two Tornadoes and other Severe Weather in Illinois over the Weekend

Severe weather, including tornadoes, heavy rains, high winds, hail, and flooding occurred across parts of Illinois yesterday and last night.

Here is the radar estimated precipitation with areas in green indicating 1 to 2.5 inches an areas in yellow and orange indicating 2.5 to 4 inches.

Below are reports of storm damage across the US for the 24 hours ending on the morning of June 8, 2015. The two tornadoes in Illinois occurred near Petersburg and Seymour. Neither one cause much damage and no injuries. There were a few reports of 1-inch hail and many reports of wind damage in Illinois from these storms. Data obtained from the NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm damage page. Continue reading “Two Tornadoes and other Severe Weather in Illinois over the Weekend”

October 13, 2011

Severe Weather in Illinois for 2011

According to statistics compiled by NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center, so far in 2011 Illinois has had 58 reports of tornadoes, 298 reports of significant hail (1 inch or more), and 674 reports of wind damage. That’s about average for us. Fortunately, we escaped the worst of the 2011 season that centered on the southeastern U.S. and Joplin, MO.
See the first figure below for the distribution of events. In some cases, we may have multiple tornado reports from the same tornado as it travels along.
The second figure shows the distribution of severe weather reports by month for Illinois. After a quiet start to 2011, severe weather activity picked up in April and continued through July before tapering off in August and September. You can see the monthly raw data and chart in Google Docs.

IL_statemap — Severe weather reports for 2011. Red dots are tornadoes, green dots are hail, and blue dots are wind damage. Click to enlarge.

July 12, 2011

Wild Weather in Chicago Area

The severe thunderstorms that swept though Chicago on July 11, 2011, caused widespread damage. Here are the maps and initial reports of damages from the NOAA Storm Prediction Center. The wind damage was common throughout Chicago, as well as parts of southeastern Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan.
Some parts of the Chicago area received up to 0.75 inches of rain from this event, according to the reports from the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow network (CoCoRaHS). See last map below.

Summary of Damage Reports (PDF)

Storm Reports for July 11, 2011, for the Midwest. Click to enlarge.

July 11 rainfall — July 11, 2011, rainfall from the CoCoRaHS network (cocorahs.org). Click to enlarge.