Thunderstorm Wind — Crawford, Illinois

2020-04-08 · near Oblong, Crawford, Illinois

Event narrative

Numerous trees and power poles were blown down.

Wider weather episode

An approaching cold front interacted with an unstable and sheared environment to trigger a broken line of supercell thunderstorms across the Illinois River Valley during the late afternoon of April 8th. The storms tracked southeastward across central Illinois, eventually congealing into a solid line before dropping to near the I-64 corridor by late evening. Wind gusts of 60-70 mph were observed, with some of the stronger cells producing gusts in excess of 70 mph. As a result of the strong winds, widespread wind damage was reported. In addition, a few of the storms dropped hail as large as ping pong balls.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.0000, -87.9200)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 884986. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.