Brewed in Canada, storm packed a punch here
Menacing thunderstorms rolled into Chicago on Thursday afternoon, blasting the area
with winds up to 70 m.p.h., hail and blinding, flooding rains. Winds reached 70 m.p.h.
at Gary, 62 m.p.h. at West Dundee and 60 m.p.h. at Addison, downing trees and power
lines as the towering 46,000-foot thunderheads swept through. Before striking
Chicago, the storms, which developed Wednesday evening in far southeast
Saskatchewan, produced a corridor of damage across the Dakotas, Minnesota and
northeast Iowa, with unconfirmed reports of winds as high as 115 m.p.h. Before the
storms struck Chicago, Midway recorded its seventh 90-degree reading of the year,
while O'Hare topped out at a steamy 89.
AUGUST, CHICAGO'S WETTEST MONTH, GETS UNDER WAY
August begins Friday and is currently Chicago's wettest month, with a normal rainfall of
4.62 inches. The last month of meteorological summer, August starts the slow
seasonal decline toward autumn. Average high temperatures drop from 83 on the 1st to
78 by the end of the month, and we also lose 1 hour and 14 minutes of daylight.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
