The severe weather which raked sections of 17 states Wednesday and Thursday, and included three dozen tornadoes, was part of the same massive storm behind Thursday’s powerful winds and late day t-storms in Chicago. By late Thursday, victims were reported trapped in tornado-devastated homes in Kentucky while twisters carved paths of destruction across Lower Michigan and Indiana. Chicago’s t-storms towered to 37,000 ft., but grew to 53,000 ft. as they proceeded east. Powerful southerly winds beneath the intense low pressure’s eastern flank sent temperatures across 10 states to record highs Thursday–among them 92(degrees) at Daytona Beach, Florida and 82(degrees) at Washington, D.C.
A new storm takes shape in the Plains this weekend. Its south winds are to send Chicago highs to 80(degrees) Sunday–the latest 80(degrees) reading here in eight years.
Sources: NOAA-NCEP, NWS-Chicago, Frank Wachowski
WGN-TV/Thomas Valle, Monika Bec, Patrick Korellis
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
