Severe Thunderstorms   8/2/11

Mc Henry co near Marengo

Rockford area

While the high today was not record breaking it did reach 94 but the real story was the humidity. The dew point this evening ran up to an amazing 82 degrees. I think only 1 degree from the all time high DP. Thats a TON of moisture in the air ! This evening we were 90 w/ a DP of 82 thus the heat index was 111.

Most of the day had a layer of warm air aloft thus putting a 'cap' on the atmosphere preventing storm development. However, with extreme heat and a cold front moving in the cap was weakened and storms blew up.

The first was over Janesville where a storm rose to over 55k ft in 15 minutes. 2" hail was reported there. 

With this kind of air mass over us the atmosphere became very to extremely unstable. The storms grew into a short line and developed into Winnebago co. But the main ones were in east Boone and Mc Henry co and east.

I did head into Mc Henry Co and got some pics along w/ very heavy rain and saw some intense cloud-ground lightning strikes !

After that I headed home.. Although there were a few more showers in Carroll and Ogle co..we figured it was over. Well with an 82 degree DP still we were wrong.

Those harmless showers exploded into severe storms. I was also taking care of other business when I got back home and wasn't paying attn to the radar. When I did I saw a cluster of severe storms from Ogle co into extreme s. Winnebago co and s. Boone and Dekalb co !  I grabbed my Camera and headed east and south eventually in S. Boone co near Dekalb line. No laptop or anything this time..but light was getting scarce.

Witnessed  lots of scud clouds..low hanging clouds with little or no rotation due  in part to tons of low level moisture.

Then was treated to a fantastic light show.

The storms here at one time in Lee and Ogle co..rose to an amazing 68,000 ft !! The cold front forced the air here upward and with no cap and colder air aloft we got these storms.

Winds were reported in the suburbs with 60- 70 +mph again ..

 Severe Thunderstorm /Wind event in Rockford and Epic Flooding in NW IL and Dubuque IA 7/27/11

Wed night was spectacular from a storm perspective..the lightning was amazing and the wind was wicked. The power getting knocked out in the area was the result of part of a tree falling on a main line..that part wasn't so cool. Power was out again over 24hrs.

When the wind hit here I estimated about a 70 mph gust here..stuff was flying all over the place.

Prior WREX Eric Sorensen reported gusts up to 80mph. It was calm here but quickly changed.

These storms were huge at over 60kft..they basically backbuilded and trained over

Dubuque IA into the Galena IL and even Freeport areas. Rainfalls were  as high as almost 14" in some areas!

Note the North- South line developing in front..High winds were developing

Early on Rotations were evident and reports of tornadoes were received.

Velocities increased rapidly..

85knot winds were evident about a mile up and they made their way down to the surface

If it was not the rain here it was the Flooding in NW IL !

Much damage occurred from this too in NW IL.