June 13 Severe Event

[Chinook]

3D view of the storm at 2346z while the rotation area was at Bensenville, NW of Chicago

8 minutes later

 

[IWXwx]

3 hours ago, A-L-E-K said:

Cool and cloudy doa here

 

[Powerball]

So instead of a derecho, we ended up with several discrete supercells.

The end justifies the means I suppose.

[OrdIowPitMsp]

My father was a pilot based out of ORD from 1987-2016. He texted me saying this is the longest meter he can remember ever seeing. 

[TheRegionRat]

Second round of sirens. 

[nwohweather]

4 minutes ago, Powerball said:

So instead of a derecho, we ended up with several discrete supercells.

The end justifies the means I suppose.

Not sure how strong the line will be here with so much CIN in the region. Tons of instability but we’ll see how much this thing can max out as it progresses. Hail has definitely been impressive for the Great Lakes today

[Hoosier]

Just got blasted with RFD winds.  Hardly any rain.

[A-L-E-K]

Feels warmer now than before storms, took a walk to the lake, great skies and water color with solid light show over water but weak sauce mammies

[Chinook]

There's a very broad but noticeable rotation with severe storm at the IN/MI border near Angola. This storm brought 75mph wind gusts to Sturgis MI recently.

[Hoosier]

On a personal note, lucked out on the path that it took.  Scarfed down dinner real quick and then stepped right outside my door for the experience.  Nice view.  

[SolidIcewx]

The lightning frequency to my SW is incredible and not even a severe storm. Really wish that was closer to me can hear faint rumbles. Gets me happy for round 2 while I sleep

[thomp2mp]

Severe T-Storm Watch 356 expanded northward into Central Lower MI, including Grand Rapids and Muskegon

[SolidIcewx]

Pretty neat to get bolts way behind the storm with no rain at least at my house 

[featherwx]

Pre-storm atop a parking deck near Roosevelt/Damen and post-storm from Hyde Park. Saw tons of tree damage and some scaffolding that had collapsed on a car along the drive home. 

[CheeselandSkies]

Beastly supercell going through the Ft. Wayne/New Haven area right now, fortunately for them like all the others today it seems to be spamming RFD surges preventing the low-level mesocyclone from really wrapping up, but a significant wind and hail producer.

[largetornado]

160k without power in Cincinnati. 

[Chicago Storm]

2 hours ago, Chicago Storm said:

84MPH wind gust at ORD.

 

2 hours ago, Hoosier said:

One of the highest gusts ever recorded there (I think 87 mph might be the record but don't quote me)

 

2 hours ago, Hoosier said:

Actually, it looks like 84 mph ties the record gust at ORD.

Highest wind gust on record for Chicago is 87MPH, set on 2/12/1894.

Tying the ORD high wind gust record is quality though.

[OHweather]

85 knot gust at Fort Wayne

KFWA 140245Z 36064G85KT 1/4SM +TSRA SQ FEW014 OVC030CB 24/ RMK AO2 PK WND 32041/0230 LTG DSNT ALQDS RAB29RAEMMB39 TSB18 CONS LTGICCG ALQDS TS ALQDS MOV SE P0000 T0239 $

[Hoosier]

11 minutes ago, OHweather said:

85 knot gust at Fort Wayne

KFWA 140245Z 36064G85KT 1/4SM +TSRA SQ FEW014 OVC030CB 24/ RMK AO2 PK WND 32041/0230 LTG DSNT ALQDS RAB29RAEMMB39 TSB18 CONS LTGICCG ALQDS TS ALQDS MOV SE P0000 T0239 $

Wow.  I remember they put up a huge number (I think 91 mph?) on 6/29/2012 but this even beats that.

[nwohweather]

Absolute powerhouse ripping through IN/OH right now

[Torchageddon]

The Van Wert storm is a unit!

[Hoosier]

Tricky day today, especially for us on the western fringes.  Storm prospects seemed to be fading, and then I made a post about an innocuous group of cells north of Rockford.  We avoided a really bad scenario for Chi metro and I'm not sure by how much.  Could've been a nightmare had that supercell decided to put down a tornado with length.     

[Hoosier]

 

[Hoosier]

 

[frostfern]

4 hours ago, Torchageddon said:

Loop is amazing.

Is that a CB anvil or a volcanic eruption column!  The symmetry is so odd for a severe weather environment with high shear.  Absolute beast.

[cyclone77]

47 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

Tricky day today, especially for us on the western fringes.  Storm prospects seemed to be fading, and then I made a post about an innocuous group of cells north of Rockford.  We avoided a really bad scenario for Chi metro and I'm not sure by how much.  Could've been a nightmare had that supercell decided to put down a tornado with length.     

Man, I had a pretty bad feeling as that sup was getting going.  It really had that look to it like it was going to do something special.  Definitely glad it didn't, as the path it took would have been quite unfortunate to say the least.  If I could hand draw a radar image of a doomsday tornado scenario for Chicago, I don't know if I could have drawn a much more scarier image than what that radar was showing there for a bit when the sup was out by Streamwood.

[Hoosier]

32 minutes ago, cyclone77 said:

Man, I had a pretty bad feeling as that sup was getting going.  It really had that look to it like it was going to do something special.  Definitely glad it didn't, as the path it took would have been quite unfortunate to say the least.  If I could hand draw a radar image of a doomsday tornado scenario for Chicago, I don't know if I could have drawn a much more scarier image than what that radar was showing there for a bit when the sup was out by Streamwood.

Because of the county boundaries and storm motion, the tornadic part of that storm traversed probably something like 30-40 miles of Cook county.  You really couldn't draw up many other plausible scenarios that would involve that much mileage in Cook.  

We'll see what any surveys turn up.  Based on radar and some stuff that I've read online, wouldn't be surprised if there were some touchdowns along the way.

[frostfern]

11 hours ago, CheeselandSkies said:

Beastly supercell going through the Ft. Wayne/New Haven area right now, fortunately for them like all the others today it seems to be spamming RFD surges preventing the low-level mesocyclone from really wrapping up, but a significant wind and hail producer.

Maybe the thing that saved us from a sig-tor event was less impressive wind at the anvil level compared to the mid level.  With such high dewpoints you get a lot of precip loading to overcome.  With such high echo tops a stronger wind at 8-12 km would push more precip out ahead of the meso.  70-80 rfd downdrafts indicate the meso is chocked with a lot of precipitation.

[Chicago Storm]

As I mentioned yesterday, I ended up getting on the well covered tornado warned supercell t’storm that moved through the Chicago metro.

I first got on the storm as it was exiting Elgin and moving into Streamwood. Very shortly after this time I did witness some wrapping to the rain curtains as it was moving very near my ex-home, with the couplet on radar being buried back in the rain. I continued to follow the storm ESE, and it made another attempt at doing something in Roselle, at the time there was another couplet on radar, but once again it was buried in the rain and would be out of visual range. I continued on ESE with the storm for a bit longer into Addison, before calling the chase as the storm headed towards ORD.

I ended up heading back to Streamwood, and found a large area of RFD damage. On the right side of this RFD damage swath is a more concentrated/significant damage corridor, which is very near where the radar couplet was located. All of the damage I came across was tree and property damage, as I did not find any sort of structural damage. However, some of the tree damage was fairly significant, especially in the aforementioned corridor. Property damage consisted of trees down on homes and vehicles, blown down fences and some trampolines/gazebos/canopys that were blown away and/or destroyed. I came across two trampolines caught in a tree and on a power pole/power line, as well as as a gazebo gazebo that was blown up into a tree.

I headed back out to do a little more personal surveying this morning, and have found that corridor of more concentrated/significant extends further north as well, and is approximately 3 blocks wide or so. In this new northern extent to the corridor, I did find some singles off of a home and metal up in a tree wrapped around a branch, and at this location there was the most significant tree damage of anywhere along the corridor.

[Possum]

Whew. Last night snuck up on me in Humboldt Park. I had all of my friends/housemates who live upstairs come down to the basement when the sirens started going off, and immediately after that they issued the updated the tor warn with my house in the center of the polygon’s path. I’ve only lived in Chicago for 6 years but seeing that couplet turn right and make a beeline for my neighborhood was the most scared I’ve felt here. 

Luckily the rotation kept turning right and passed us to the south, and once we were out of danger the storm was extremely enjoyable. We all went out and sat under the sunroom porch to watch the lightning show as the storm passed to the southeast. Had several very close CG’s no more than .2 miles away where the flash and boom were almost simultaneous. Easily the best thunder and lightning I’ve experienced here. Even had a few dime-sized hailstones. No damage to my house or garden, and I’m glad for the .44” of rain we got to help my plants get through the 100 degree heat moving in today. Overall it ended up being a great storm, crazy to consider how easily it could’ve been a tragedy.