4/5/10 DISC: OK / KS / NE / MO / IA / IL

[Ian Contreras]

I watched the storm approach last night out my window on the NW side of Chicago while taking a series of photos as well. I do remember seeing, as the mini-shelf passed overhead, a couple of power flashes about 20 seconds apart to my WSW. The wind obviously knocked out some power lines and such. Pretty neat for a window chase!

 

[Pete Smith]

This storm had me extremely concerned. I am in Skokie and we had marble sized hail but now there are report of 70mph at Ohare and baseball sized hail.

I'm in Morton Grove near Glenview and had ten minutes of penny to quarter sized hail, with at least a 50+ mph wind gust about halfway through it! I guess I only missed that baseball sized hail by about 5 miles, thankfully! This reminds me of the hail storm we had in the same area around October 2nd of 2006 which put some dents in my car.

 

[Pete Smith]

I watched the storm approach last night out my window on the NW side of Chicago while taking a series of photos as well. I do remember seeing, as the mini-shelf passed overhead, a couple of power flashes about 20 seconds apart to my WSW. The wind obviously knocked out some power lines and such. Pretty neat for a window chase!

See my post above. Had a strong gust of wind in the midst of all the hail, but probably not anywhere near 70mph as there were only some twigs on the ground. But with that heavy hail and rain falling, a 40 mph wind gust can look like 80!

Loved the second t-storm warning we had at about 2 am for potential 70+ mph winds in the same area. We were lucky if we had a 15mph wind gust with that one! Talk about a "severe" storm fizzling out! This is more typical for April severe storms as they approach a still frigid Lake Michigan. That's why I was surprised the first cluster was so strong.