Chicago Storm

ORD hit 90 yesterday. Also 91 MDW and 91 here, making it the 3rd 90+ day in a row. It was a big comeback for the area after the MCS. ORD was “only” 80 at 2PM. .

No, it's definitely and issue with the sensor. It has been running behind on the warmer days recently. All OBS sites hit 90+ yesterday, except ORD.

It's not just the HRRR. All guidance has struggled badly, both yesterday and today.

89'd again today. Oh the horror.

Yep, 89'd again. MDW hit 90, and made it to 91 here.

What a day... Hit 90 for the first time this year here this afternoon. The lake breeze passed around 6PM, and combined with the fact that the developing storms were along I-88 and moving ESE, I didn’t think we’d see anything. One storm managed to push NE though, along outflow that was surging NE as well, from the main activity further south. The storm was high based, and had that good picturesque high based structure. A nice hail shaft was clearly visible too as it moved in. The storm ended up maxing out as it passed overhead. Ended up with a solid nearly 5-10 minute period of hail, with a few of the biggest stones up to 2.25”. Strong winds up to 55-60mph also accompanied the hail, making for a quality downburst. Trees were shredded with leaves flying everywhere, due to the hail/wind combo. The wind ended up bringing down a few small branches in the area as well. There was also widespread road flooding, mostly due to the combination heavy rains with the downburst and tree debris clogging storm drains. Following the storm was a double rainbow, some mammatus, and a quality backlit view of the storms departing at sunset. There is still hail up to nearly penny size on the ground at this time, nearly 3 hours post storm. Believe it or not, this was the first storm to produce severe criteria activity IMBY since 2011. .

Hit 90 here today, first 90+ day on the year. ORD was 89'd...mostly due to earlier lake breeze passage. MDW hit 90.

Welcome to July...

lol .

It's from the significant Canadian wildfires.

Ended up chasing locally on Monday... Heading into this day, it looked very similar to other prolific tornado days across the area, including 6/5/10. Prior to leaving, one thing I had been concerned about was the lingering small MCS moving across Missouri. Even with that minor concern, I ended up heading out just after noon, with a target of near or just south of I-80...Between I-74 and I-39. Ended up passing the first initial supercell that pushed across the south Chicago metro, just as it was starting to get going in the far SW suburbs. However, I decided to not chase it, given it was heading into the metro and could put me out of position for the main activity west. On the drive down I was also watching the cluster of tornadic supercells pushing from SE. Iowa into W. IL, but was not fond of how messy and clustered they were. Stuck with the original plan and I made it to Princeton, prior to 2PM. By this time a few supercells had developed near MLI, and were starting to slowly mature and push east. Ended up grabbing some food really quick in Princeton, before heading after the better looking storm just as it went tor warned. I reached the storm as it was approaching Deere Grove. At this time, the storm was outflow dominant and fighting other storm development nearby. Continuing to stair-step east with this storm, to north and northeast of Walnut, the storm continued to be fairly outflow dominant, as it ingested another storm or two...However, there was one point that it did seem to make an effort to organize for a sort time, with even a more concentrated area of rotation/lowering. I continued east with this storm through the Sublette area, eventually reaching Route 251. Through this point the storm continued to be outflow dominant, and there was also widespread additional t'storm develop, which would hamper further potential with this storm. At this point I called it a chase and headed home. I believe the small MCS that I was concerned about moving across MO was a problem...As well as the cluster of supercells that moved from SE. IA and into W. IL. With a wide open and cloud-free warm sector, we likely would have seen a more significant tornado day across E. IA and N/C. IL. It did still end up being a significant day further east as we saw though, across IN/OH during the afternoon and night.

1.92" of rain at ORD yesterday, which broke the record precip amount for the date of 1.80" (1939). The 1.92" of rain yesterday at ORD also made it the wettest Memorial Day on record. Top 5 wettest Memorial Days on record... 1. 1.92" - 5/27/2019 2. 1.00" - 5/28/1984 3. 0.76" - 5/31/1999 4. 0.75" - 5/30/1883 5. 0.69" - 5/30/1885

Ended up heading west later yesterday afternoon, to make a play on the OFB area turned triple point, with the cold front sliding southeast. The environment in this area was nice...With high CAPE, pooling of moisture with ~70F DP's and good shear. A stronger surface wind flow was lacking, however. Sat in Rochelle for a while with CU bubbling along the OFB/triple point just west. A storm quickly went up and tried to beat the cap, going severe and up to around ~55k tops within 15 minutes or so. Quickly headed WSW to make a play on it and reached it just west of Amboy, but it quickly died shortly after. Ended up calling it a chase at that point, with activity further west near the IL/IA border having little to no tor threat, and also struggling.

This MCS that has regenerated this morning and early afternoon looks likely to push SE/SSE alight the instability gradient in place, which runs down along the IL/IN border area. It has featured embedded areas of rotation at times in the SW/S metro, with a few wall cloud reports. Overall severe reports have been surprising low though, given wind and hail sigs on radar. Re-development of quality surface based activity later this afternoon and evening in a very nice environment ahead of the cold front and near the OFB across Iowa, S. WI/N. IL looks questionable...With slightly rising heights, subsidence in the wake of the current S/W, no formidable wave close upstream and a cap in place.

Looked good this morning...good enough for me to head west to Dixon. Warm front/triple point looked like the main play...With decent instability, good moisture and great shear in place, plus much more clearing then expected. Then when I got out to Dixon and was sitting there for a bit, clouds and rain magically redeveloped and streamed back north across W. IL and further north, killing the threat.

Indeed...

April '19 the 6th snowiest April on record for Chicago... 1. 13.6" - 1938 2. 10.7" - 1970 3. 10.6" - 1982 4. 10.0" - 1975 5. 8.8" - 1961 6. 7.9" - 2019 7. 6.9" - 1910 8. 6.6" - 1926 9. 6.4" - 1920 10. 4.8" - 1936

Downtown Davenport, IA under a FFE due to levee failure. Levee has failed and is flooding the downtown area at this time.

LOT dropping the ball with headlines once again...In this case flood headlines. Should have been under a flood watch for this multi-day period. Had 0.50-1,00" precip across the area on Saturday, with soils saturated from that. Then round one Sun night-Mon afternoon dropped 1-2" of rain, which cause widespread flooding (field, yard, some prone roads) and a rise in area creeks/rivers some some in flood now. This second main round coming in from now through tomorrow morning will easily drop another 2-4" across the area, with locally higher amounts possible if things pan out correctly. Then there's a third round on Thursday, though that is still up in the air rainfall amount wise.

Widespread 1-2" rainfall totals across the area from the heavy rain and t'storms last night and this morning. ORD picked up 1.54" with that first round. The second round from tomorrow morning into Wednesday morning should drop another 1-3" across the area, then a third round for Wednesday night into Thursday.

Surprisingly still have a few remnant piles left.

Finished with 5.5” here. .

RFD finished with 3.7” .

Looks like the main axis will end up with widespread totals in the 3-6" range, with isolated 6"+ totals.

Haven’t been home for this one yet, but word is 1.5” there as of a bit ago. Has been snowing nicely from MBY to ORD corridor for a while now. .