Most of the severe weather from this event has already occurred, so I'm not sure if this should be a FCST or MISC thread. MODS please change it if it is wrong.
Interestingly, it appears the Lake Michigan sea-breeze front lit up this evening across SE WI and the Chicago metro area. I don't recall the last time I saw that happen with storm motions going straight down the lake shore, thus affecting a large number of people. The area is upwind of the ridge axis, so 500 mb flow is almost straight out of the north. However, low level flow is still out of the south providing for some interesting shear profiles, clearly strong enough to support supercell development, although the supercells that developed were probably not fully surface based (there was plenty of elevated CAPE, though). The reports coming in from the Chicago area are impressive: numerous 60+ MPH wind gusts including an 81 mph gust from a buoy just offshore! That was with the first storm. The second storm has been a big hail producer, with baseball sized hail being reported in the Chicago metro area.
I see Danny Neal and Adam Lucio's SN icons active in the area, so I'm hoping they can chime in here with some firsthand reports and images of this event.
Interestingly, it appears the Lake Michigan sea-breeze front lit up this evening across SE WI and the Chicago metro area. I don't recall the last time I saw that happen with storm motions going straight down the lake shore, thus affecting a large number of people. The area is upwind of the ridge axis, so 500 mb flow is almost straight out of the north. However, low level flow is still out of the south providing for some interesting shear profiles, clearly strong enough to support supercell development, although the supercells that developed were probably not fully surface based (there was plenty of elevated CAPE, though). The reports coming in from the Chicago area are impressive: numerous 60+ MPH wind gusts including an 81 mph gust from a buoy just offshore! That was with the first storm. The second storm has been a big hail producer, with baseball sized hail being reported in the Chicago metro area.
I see Danny Neal and Adam Lucio's SN icons active in the area, so I'm hoping they can chime in here with some firsthand reports and images of this event.
