08/02/06 NOW: MI/WI/IL/IN/IA/KS/NE

[David Draun]

Storms have initiated, the main threat is wind damage. By far, the most impressive cells are in central KS right now. They have produced damaging winds of 80-100mph. More storms are begining in MI, SE into WI, IL, and IA. The line will probably fill in on to the SE as the afternoon wears on.

Not a big tornado threat, but hey, at least this will give us some relief from this heat, right?

 

[MatthewCarman]

Looks like the storms in KS could continue into the night as tey move NE/E. Watching the radar and looks like the storms in KS could be forming into a line with destructive winds possible into the night. The cold front will cool things down by 10-15 degrees yay!

EDIT: Looks like storms will stay isolated for now with last check of radar. Lots of rain is coming in behind the storms which is needed.

 

[David Draun]

Quite a few atomic-looking cumulonimbus blowing up to my north and west. There is a pocket of -10 LI and the cap is completely gone. New MD states that the storms are forming on a differential heating boundary, and a new watch is likely.

EDIT 6:27 PM: Storms are becoming very severe, very quickly. Northern Kane County currently under a warning. Some great structure out there on these updrafts. Anvil knuckles, inflow bands, backsheared anvils, overshooting tops, the works! Would be nice to see a wall could in there too, though.

New watch issued to cover the Chicago Metro in effect until midnight

 

[Kevin Bowman]

Quite a few atomic-looking cumulonimbus blowing up to my north and west. There is a pocket of -10 LI and the cap is completely gone. New MD states that the storms are forming on a differential heating boundary, and a new watch is likely.

EDIT 6:27 PM: Storms are becoming very severe, very quickly. Northern Kane County currently under a warning. Some great structure out there on these updrafts. Anvil knuckles, inflow bands, backsheared anvils, overshooting tops, the works! Would be nice to see a wall could in there too, though.

New watch issued to cover the Chicago Metro in effect until midnight
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the storms are having a hell of a time sustaining themselves right now, they are going up fast, becoming severe and then dying out rather quickly. flooding is possible from the west side into downtown as the storms are training over that area

 

[David Draun]

Definitely right about the sustainment problems. I had an impressive shelf cloud blow through with a pretty good wind gust. Otherwise not too impressive. There was very little lightning, if any. Also the SBCINH has increased dramatically over the area according to mesoanalysis. It still could get active later, of course the new activity will probably be elevated.

 

[Laura Hedien]

And it was pretty much the same story for WI. I drove around WI and let a cell chase me for a few hours but it never got it's act together until it crossed Lake Michigan... of course....
Still it was nice to get out.
L

 

[Terrence Cook]

I was out golfing around 9 pm and saw the "atomic" looking towers going up in North Central Illinois. I am 30 miles south of Lafayette, So I'm seeing these storms from over 125 miles away. The lightning is awesome as well now that it is dark outside. Very photogenic!

 

[Danny Neal]

the lightning from those storms were phenominal the city of oak lawn had 12-15 house fires in 2 hours form lightning striking them and a bolt of lightning hit the transformer outside my house and knocked power out, thank god for laptops currently in the dark, storms have now moved into indiana

 

[Joel Wright]

I had to work all night and could see the towers blowing up to my east and south out the window.

Impressive bow echo flying up through eastern IA right now, heading for the Mississippi. It looks pretty impressive on radar, but there's no warnings out, nor damage reports. Lots of lightning though to my southwest. I'm about to grab the camera and see if I can go out and get some late night lightning shots....

 

[Kevin Bowman]

impressive bow echo moving very quickly into the sw burbs of chicago,

 

[Joel Wright]

Bow echo passed by here about a half hour ago with about a five minute period of high winds. I'd estimate peak gusts in the 50-60mph range.

The most impressive thing to me is the nearly continuous lightning (mainly cloud to cloud) and the longevity of the strong winds. After the initial high wind gusts, the winds have stayed up near 40mph for the last half hour along with very heavy rain. The comma head of the bow is passing nearly overhead, which is probably why the winds have maintained strength. No hail was observed with this event.

 

[Kevin Bowman]

much to do about nothing, didnt even catch a shelf cloud moving in, just started to rain, very very little lightning and thunder, second time in 2 weeks watched a powerful line of storms which looked great 30-60 minutes before only to fizzle greatly by the time they reach me

 

[David Draun]

Here, the wind hit several minutes before any of the rain did. A couple trees down, including one blocking an entire semi-busy side-street in my neighborhood. We were also hit by the comma head. Not much lightning, but there were a few good bolts.