Thunderstorm Wind — Hamilton, Illinois
2025-10-19 · near Mc Leansboro, Hamilton, Illinois
Event narrative
Trees were blown down in McLeansboro.
Wider weather episode
A small cluster of thunderstorms developed and moved all the way across southern Illinois in the early morning. The storms formed just ahead of a strong, sharp 500mb trough in an area of strong upper divergence associated with a small 120kt 300mb jet. Most unstable CAPE was only around 250J/kg, but mid-level lapse rates were 6.5-7 C/km and low-level lapse rates were 6-6.5 C/km. Right near the trough line, the shear was negligible. The storms began to produce damaging winds across eastern portions of Perry County and then solidified into a persistent bow echo over Franklin County. It produced damaging winds as it moved northeast through McLeansboro and into White county.
View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.0900, -88.5300)
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1298147. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.