July 19, 2006 Windstorm

Severe weather reports from July 19
Severe weather reports from July 19.  Click image to enlarge.

A severe weather outbreak occurred across portions of the middle and upper Mississippi River valley on July 19. 

This storm system was originally tracking across southern Minnesota on the morning of July 19.  As the morning progressed, it curved southeast into eastern Iowa, then moved across central and western Illinois during the mid to late afternoon.  By early evening, it began to affect the St. Louis area, where it did extensive damage and left a half million people without power.  Click here for a listing of severe weather reports across the nation, courtesy of the Storm Prediction Center.  A more localized listing for central Illinois is available at the bottom of this event page.

Across central Illinois, most of the reports were concentrated in an area west of a Bloomington to Taylorville line, westward to Galesburg and Winchester.  These reports were largely in the form of wind damage or wind gusts of 60 mph or higher.  Some hail of nickel or quarter size occurred in a few locations, with Havana receiving hail up the size of walnuts.  Funnel clouds were also reported a couple areas.

Satellite images (click images to enlarge); click here for an image loop (1.6 MB):

Satellite image from around 8:30 am This satellite image from around 8:30 am shows the thunderstorm complex (called a "mesoscale convective system", or MCS for short) moving across southern Minnesota.
Satellite image from 9:45 am By 9:30 am, the MCS was growing in size and intensity.  The green shades indicate where the temperature of the cloud tops was measured to be around minus 70 degrees Celsius.
Satellite image from around 11 am Just before 11 am, the satellite imagery indicated the MCS was starting to curve to the southeast.
Satellite image from 12:45 pm High clouds from the MCS continue to spread across northern Illinois, in this satellite image from 12:45 pm.
Satellite image from 2:55 pm In this image from around 3 pm, the coldest cloud tops, associated with the strongest storms, were located across northwestern Illinois.  This is indicated by the blue shades, which depict cloud temperatures of 60 below to 70 below zero Celsius.
Satellite image from 4:15 pm At 4:15 pm, the satellite showed the most intense storms to be in areas between Peoria and Quincy.

 

Radar images (click images to enlarge); click here for a radar image loop (3.1 MB):

Davenport IA radar image from 10 am This radar image was taken from the Davenport, IA radar at 10 am.  Most of the storms at this time were in the radar's long range (between the inner and outer circles).  The inner circle is approximately 140 miles from the radar, and the outer circle is 280 miles.  Even at this distance, stronger radar echoes (shown by the red shadings) were being detected in southern Minnesota.  Strong to severe thunderstorms were moving across north central Iowa.
Davenport IA radar image at 11:09 am Just over an hour later (11:09 am), the leading edge of the storms had reached Waterloo, IA.
Davenport IA radar image at 1:03 pm The leading edge of the storms were approaching the Quad Cities just after 1 pm.
Lincoln radar image from 2 pm This is the image from the Lincoln radar at 2 pm.  The storms at this point were along the Mississippi River.
Lincoln radar image at 2:30 pm This radar image was taken at 2:30 pm.  While the main "bow echo" of storms was in an arc from southwest to east of Moline, thunderstorms had developed ahead of it around Galesburg.
Lincoln radar image from 3 pm By 3 pm, strong to severe thunderstorms were widespread from Princeton, southwest through Galesburg, to around Monmouth.
Lincoln radar image from 3:33 pm In this radar image from 3:33 pm, the storms had reached the Illinois River upstream from Chillicothe, and extended back across southern Knox and northern Fulton Counties.  About 10 minutes after this image was recorded, a wind gust of 60 mph was measured in Chillicothe.
Radar image from 4 pm By 4 pm, the storms had pushed well across the Peoria metro area.  Many trees were reported down across Peoria and neraby areas.  In fact, trees were down all along this line of storms. 
Radar image from 4:31 pm This image was from 4:31 pm.  Around this time, the storm in the Havana area had produced winds of 70-90 mph, along with hail 1.5 inches in diameter.  Wind damage was also being reported with the leading "gust front" from the storm, indicated by the thin blue/green line extending from west of Lincoln to around Lexington.
Storm Relative Motion radar image from 4:52 pm This the "Storm Relative Motion" image from 4:52 pm.  The movement of the storms are compared with the winds aloft measured by Doppler radar.  The pink areas southwest of Lincoln, as well as the darker blue shades to the northeast, are indicative of winds of 70 mph or greater.  Because the radar beam increases with height, these measurements are approximately 500 to 1500 feet off the ground.  Still, the wind damage reports indicated that a lot of these winds aloft were being brought down to the surface.
Radar image from 5:14 pm Although the main area of storms was just starting to come into Sangamon County at 5:14 pm, extensive tree and power line damage was already occurring across the county, associated with the gust front that had pushed down to I-72 by this point. 
Radar image from 6:02 pm This radar image from 6:02 pm showed the storms south of I-72, pushing into northern parts of Macoupin and Montgomery Counties.
Radar image from 6:29 pm As the storms pushed south across Macoupin and Montgomery Counties, tree and power line damage continued.  This image was taken at 6:29 pm.  At 6:35 pm, a wind gust of 92 mph was measured near Bunker Hill, in southern Macoupin County.

Local Storm Report:

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL
856 AM CDT THU JUL 20 2006
..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..
0234 PM     TSTM WND DMG     GALESBURG               40.95N 90.38W
07/19/2006                   KNOX               IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            TREE DOWN AND POWER LINES DOWN ON NORTHERN SIDE OF TOWN.

0240 PM     TSTM WND DMG     DAHINDA                 40.95N 90.10W
07/19/2006                   KNOX               IL   CO-OP OBSERVER
            LARGE LIMBS DOWN. TIME ESTIMATED.
0255 PM     TSTM WND DMG     5 NNE TOULON            41.16N 89.83W
07/19/2006                   STARK              IL   LAW ENFORCEMENT
            TREE DOWN ON ROUTE 93... NORTH OF TOULON AND WEST OF
            ELMIRA.
0315 PM     TSTM WND GST     2 SE CASTLETON          41.10N 89.67W
07/19/2006  E60.00 MPH       STARK              IL   PUBLIC
0322 PM     TSTM WND DMG     2 W SPARLAND            41.03N 89.48W
07/19/2006                   MARSHALL           IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            TREE BLOWN DOWN ACROSS ROUTE 17 WEST OF SPARLAND.
0342 PM     TSTM WND DMG     METAMORA                40.79N 89.36W
07/19/2006                   WOODFORD           IL   TRAINED SPOTTER
            6 INCH DIAMETER TREE LIMBS DOWN. WINDS ESTIMATED AT 60 TO
            70 MPH. 1.23 INCHES OF RAIN IN 20 MINUTES.
0345 PM     TSTM WND GST     CHILLICOTHE             40.92N 89.50W
07/19/2006  M60.00 MPH       PEORIA             IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            LOGAN ESDA AT HAZARDOUS MATERIAL EXERCISE IN RURAL PEORIA
            COUNTY NEAR CHILICOTHE AREA MADE THIS REPORT.
0345 PM     TSTM WND DMG     CHILLICOTHE             40.92N 89.50W
07/19/2006                   PEORIA             IL   CO-OP OBSERVER
            TREES AND BRANCHES DOWN.
0345 PM     TSTM WND DMG     ROME                    40.88N 89.51W
07/19/2006                   PEORIA             IL   CO-OP OBSERVER
            10 TO 12 INCH DIAMETER TREE DOWN ACROSS ROAD. SWOP
            REPORT.
0350 PM     TSTM WND DMG     PEORIA                  40.74N 89.61W
07/19/2006                   PEORIA             IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            TREES DOWN ACROSS THE CITY OF PEORIA
0351 PM     HAIL             WEST PEORIA             40.70N 89.63W
07/19/2006  M0.75 INCH       PEORIA             IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
0353 PM     TSTM WND GST     2 NE SMITHFIELD         40.49N 90.27W
07/19/2006  E60.00 MPH       FULTON             IL   TRAINED SPOTTER
            RELAYED FROM WFO DVN.
0353 PM     HAIL             PEORIA                  40.74N 89.61W
07/19/2006  E0.75 INCH       PEORIA             IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            HAIL REPORTED BY CITY ESDA AT BRADLEY UNIVERSITY AND
            ESTIMATED 50 MPH WITH 3-4 INCH LIMBS BLOWN DOWN. FROM
            PEORIA CITY ESDA.
0355 PM     TSTM WND GST     EAST PEORIA             40.67N 89.55W
07/19/2006  E65.00 MPH       TAZEWELL           IL   BROADCAST MEDIA
            ESTIMATED 60 TO 70 MPH WINDS AT WPEO RADIO.
0356 PM     TORNADO          3 E CANTON              40.56N 89.98W
07/19/2006                   FULTON             IL   TRAINED SPOTTER
0400 PM     TSTM WND DMG     MARIETTA                40.50N 90.39W
07/19/2006                   FULTON             IL   CO-OP OBSERVER
            TREES DOWN. TIME ESTIMATED.
0410 PM     TSTM WND DMG     PEKIN                   40.57N 89.63W
07/19/2006                   TAZEWELL           IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            TREES DOWN ACROSS THE COUNTY
0410 PM     TSTM WND DMG     LEWISTOWN               40.40N 90.16W
07/19/2006                   FULTON             IL   PUBLIC
            UTILITY POLE AND LINES DOWN ON A CAR.
0429 PM     HAIL             HAVANA                  40.30N 90.06W
07/19/2006  M1.50 INCH       MASON              IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
0429 PM     TSTM WND GST     HAVANA                  40.30N 90.06W
07/19/2006  E80.00 MPH       MASON              IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            70-90 MPH WINDS
0430 PM     TSTM WND DMG     4 NNE HAVANA            40.35N 90.03W
07/19/2006                   MASON              IL   CO-OP OBSERVER
            SMALL TREE SPLIT, TREE BRANCHES DOWN.
0435 PM     TSTM WND DMG     NEW HOLLAND             40.18N 89.58W
07/19/2006                   LOGAN              IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            POWER LINES DOWN
0435 PM     TSTM WND DMG     MINONK                  40.90N 89.04W
07/19/2006                   WOODFORD           IL   CO-OP OBSERVER
            LARGE BRANCHES DOWN. TIME ESTIMATED.
0440 PM     HAIL             HAVANA                  40.30N 90.06W
07/19/2006  E0.88 INCH       MASON              IL   PUBLIC
            RELAYED BY NSSL.
0440 PM     HAIL             2 SE LIVERPOOL          40.38N 89.98W
07/19/2006  E1.00 INCH       MASON              IL   PUBLIC
            RELAYED BY NSSL.
0442 PM     TSTM WND DMG     HARTSBURG               40.25N 89.44W
07/19/2006                   LOGAN              IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            POWER LINES AND TREES DOWN. POWER OUT IN HARTSBURG.
0444 PM     HAIL             6 W LEXINGTON           40.64N 88.90W
07/19/2006  M0.75 INCH       MCLEAN             IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
0445 PM     HAIL             HAVANA                  40.30N 90.06W
07/19/2006  E1.00 INCH       MASON              IL   PUBLIC
            RELAYED BY NSSL.
0445 PM     HAIL             1 SE HAVANA             40.29N 90.04W
07/19/2006  E1.00 INCH       MASON              IL   PUBLIC
            RELAYED BY NSSL.
0445 PM     HAIL             3 W POPLAR CITY         40.25N 90.01W
07/19/2006  E0.88 INCH       MASON              IL   PUBLIC
            RELAYED BY NSSL.
0446 PM     TSTM WND DMG     GREENVIEW               40.08N 89.74W
07/19/2006                   MENARD             IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            TREE LIMBS DOWN IN GREENVIEW ALONG RT. 29. WINDS
            ESTIMATED AT 60 MPH.
0450 PM     TSTM WND DMG     LINCOLN                 40.15N 89.37W
07/19/2006                   LOGAN              IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            MULTIPLE TREES DOWN ON THE WEST SIDE OF LINCOLN.
0450 PM     TSTM WND DMG     1 E LINCOLN             40.15N 89.35W
07/19/2006                   LOGAN              IL   NWS EMPLOYEE
            12 INCH DIAMETER TREE DOWN.
0450 PM     HAIL             2 E HAVANA              40.30N 90.02W
07/19/2006  E1.00 INCH       MASON              IL   PUBLIC
            RELAYED BY NSSL.
0452 PM     TSTM WND DMG     BROADWELL               40.07N 89.44W
07/19/2006                   LOGAN              IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            TREES DOWN AND A TREE ON A HOUSE.
0503 PM     TSTM WND DMG     WILLIAMSVILLE           39.95N 89.56W
07/19/2006                   SANGAMON           IL   TRAINED SPOTTER
            SIGHTING OFF OF HOMES AND NUMEROUS BRANCHES DOWN. MINOR
            STREET FLOODING.
0507 PM     TSTM WND GST     BLOOMINGTON             40.48N 88.97W
07/19/2006  M59.00 MPH       MCLEAN             IL   MESONET
            AT BLOOMINGTON AIRPORT AWSS.
0508 PM     HAIL             WILLIAMSVILLE           39.95N 89.56W
07/19/2006  M0.88 INCH       SANGAMON           IL   AMATEUR RADIO
            LOTS OF TREES DOWN ACROSS THE CITY ALSO.
0510 PM     TSTM WND GST     SPRINGFIELD             39.78N 89.64W
07/19/2006  E65.00 MPH       SANGAMON           IL   PUBLIC
            ESTIMATED ON NORTHEAST SIDE OF SPRINGFIELD.
0510 PM     TSTM WND DMG     SPRINGFIELD             39.78N 89.64W
07/19/2006                   SANGAMON           IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            WIND DAMAGE ACROSS WHOLE CITY. TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN

0510 PM     TSTM WND DMG     SPRINGFIELD             39.78N 89.64W
07/19/2006                   SANGAMON           IL   FIRE DEPT/RESCUE
            TREES AND A POWER POLE DOWN ON THE WEST SIDE OF TOWN ON
            JEFFERSON STREET.
0510 PM     TSTM WND DMG     SPRINGFIELD             39.78N 89.64W
07/19/2006                   SANGAMON           IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            *** 1 INJ *** TREE DOWN ON CAR ON 2ND STREET. TRANSPORTED
            TO HOSPITAL
0511 PM     TORNADO          CANTRALL                39.93N 89.68W
07/19/2006                   SANGAMON           IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            TORNADO SPOTTED BY TRAINED SPOTTER IN SANGAMON COUNTY AND
            RELAYED BY MENARD COUNTY ESDA.
0514 PM     TSTM WND GST     2 S PHILADELPHIA        39.89N 90.12W
07/19/2006  E60.00 MPH       CASS               IL   MESONET
            WINDS ESTIMATED OVER 60 MPH FROM SWOP SUPPLEMENTAL
            OBSERVER NETWORK.
0520 PM     TSTM WND DMG     BUFFALO                 39.85N 89.41W
07/19/2006                   SANGAMON           IL   CO-OP OBSERVER
            LARGE LIMBS BLOCKING OLD ROUTE 36. TIME ESTIMATED.
0530 PM     TSTM WND DMG     CLINTON                 40.15N 88.96W
07/19/2006                   DE WITT            IL   TRAINED SPOTTER
            LARGE TREE LIMBS DOWN ON MADISON AVENUE.
0530 PM     TSTM WND DMG     JACKSONVILLE            39.73N 90.23W
07/19/2006                   MORGAN             IL   LAW ENFORCEMENT
            TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN ACROSS ALL OF THE COUNTY.
            SHERIFF REPORT.
0535 PM     TSTM WND DMG     WINCHESTER              39.63N 90.46W
07/19/2006                   SCOTT              IL   LAW ENFORCEMENT
            POWER LINES DOWN
0540 PM     TSTM WND DMG     WAVERLY                 39.59N 89.95W
07/19/2006                   MORGAN             IL   LAW ENFORCEMENT
            TREES DOWN ACROSS ALL OF CITY WITH POWER LINES DOWN. FROM
            COUNTY SHERIFF.
0544 PM     HAIL             3 E CHATHAM             39.67N 89.64W
07/19/2006  M0.88 INCH       SANGAMON           IL   TRAINED SPOTTER
0544 PM     TSTM WND DMG     2 E CHATHAM             39.67N 89.66W
07/19/2006                   SANGAMON           IL   NWS EMPLOYEE
            TREE DOWN.
0550 PM     HAIL             DIVERNON                39.57N 89.65W
07/19/2006  M0.88 INCH       SANGAMON           IL   AMATEUR RADIO
0600 PM     TSTM WND DMG     JACKSONVILLE            39.73N 90.23W
07/19/2006                   MORGAN             IL   CO-OP OBSERVER
            TREES AND BRANCHES DOWN. TIME ESTIMATED.
0611 PM     TSTM WND DMG     STONINGTON              39.64N 89.19W
07/19/2006                   CHRISTIAN          IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            NUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN.
0611 PM     TSTM WND DMG     KINCAID                 39.59N 89.41W
07/19/2006                   CHRISTIAN          IL   EMERGENCY MNGR
            NUMEROUS TRESS AND POWER LINES DOWN.


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  • Page last modified: July 22nd 2006 10:12 PM
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