Thunderstorm Wind — Putnam, Illinois

2020-07-11 · near Mc Nabb, Putnam, Illinois

Event narrative

Up to 2 inch diameter branches broken due to thunderstorm winds.

Wider weather episode

Severe thunderstorms developed across eastern Iowa and northwest Illinois Saturday, July 11, producing widespread wind damage and very large hail. The first line of storms came through during the morning, producing damaging wind gusts and reports of quarter to ping pong ball size hail from Independence to Tipton Iowa. A wind gust of 65 MPH was measured just west of Independence. The second round of thunderstorms developed as a result of an upper level disturbance interacting with an atmosphere characterized by extremely high instability with modest vertical wind shear. Activity initially formed in north central Iowa, producing golf ball to two inch hail from Fort Dodge to Waterloo Iowa. Eventually, storms made their way towards the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City metro areas, producing widespread wind damage and hail up to baseball size. These storms continued through the Quad Cities metro east towards Princeton, Sterling, and Hennepin Illinois, producing additional reports of wind damage and winds of 70 to 90 mph. Numerous power outages were also reported.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.1800, -89.2100)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 907299. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.