Severe Thunderstorms Race Through American Midwest | NOAA

Severe Thunderstorms Race Through American Midwest | NOAA

Parts of the Midwest are cleaning up after thunderstorms barreled through the region on the night of Monday, July 15, 2024, bringing hurricane-force winds and multiple tornadoes around Chicago. More than 600 reports of damaging winds from Iowa to Michigan left over 350,000 customers without power Tuesday morning.

The storm complex was a derecho, or a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of fast-moving showers or thunderstorms. Storms first erupted during the mid-evening hours in central and eastern Iowa, bringing tennis-ball-size hail in Crawford. Initial storms began as rotating supercells, including one that spawned a tornado near Des Moines, then continued through northeastern Indiana along a 500-mile-long path before dissipating around 2 a.m. Tuesday. It toppled hundreds of trees, downed wires and power poles, ripped off roofs and damaged vehicles.

In Chicago, forecasters at the National Weather Service had to abandon their posts as a tornado approached, transferring warnings to a sister office in Gaylord, Michigan. These storms then merged into a cluster, reaching 55,000 feet in height. From there, the storms moved east along a stalled frontal boundary. Cooler air was present to the north, with very warm, moist air to the south. Storms tend to straddle boundaries, in this case, steering them into northern and central Illinois and then Chicago.

Video Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Duration: 2 minutes

Release Date: July 19, 2024

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