HUGE HAIL—in places baseball size (2.75″ in diameter at Sandwich, IL)-bombarded a large swath of the Greater Chicago metro area with powerful t-storms which reached 42,000 ft. above local terrain.

Few areas in and around Chicago have been immune from the hail.  Large hail has even hit parts of the city. The Jefferson Park neighborhood was hit with 1.50″ diameter hail (ping pong size) just past 2 p.m.  Other large hail reports have included 2.75″ Sandwich (DeKalb county), 2.50″ Leland, IL, 1.75″ Kaneville, Harwood Heights and Big Rock, IL. More than 130 reports of large hail have been filed so far today with the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center

GUSTY WINDS ACCOMPANIED THE LARGE HAIL IN TUESDAY’S LATE MORNING/EARLY AFTERNOON STORMS 

Wednesday Severe Weather Outlook

SCATTERED STORMS RETURN in the warm air over 30 to 50% of the metro area in Wednesday’s pre and immediate post dawn hours—with the potential for A NEW OUTBREAK OF POTENTIALLY SEVERE STORMS THREATENING LATER WEDNESDAY MORNING as a cold front passes.

The SEVERE STORM RISK WEDNESDAY MORNING is RELATIVELY HIGH—put at “3” on the 5-LEVEL SEVERE WEATHER RISK SCALE employed by the Storm Prediction Center.

THE COLD FRONTAL PASSAGE TOWARD LUNCH TIME WEDNESDAY is to bring clearing—BUT ALSO POWERFUL NON T-STORM WIND GUSTS WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON that are likely to top 40 mph.

Understanding the Weather: How does hail form?

Hailstones are formed when raindrops are carried upward by t-storm updrafts into extremely cold areas of the atmosphere and freeze. Hailstones grow by colliding with liquid water drops that freeze onto the hailstone’s surface. The hail falls when the thunderstorm’s updraft cannot support the weight of the hailstone, which can occur if the stone becomes large enough or the updraft weakens…

LOOKING LONGER RANGE—over the coming 2 weeks—A MUCH WARMER WEATHER PATTERN IS IN THE OFFING with 8 of the coming 15 days, beginning this Sunday away from the lake, LIKELY TO SEE 70-degree temps.

The week ahead is to average 4.5 -deg above normal based on our analysis of model projections—though COOLER DAYTIME 50-deg TEMPS are to take up residence here Thursday and Friday.

Weekend warming—particularly Sunday is to produce (on average) the warmest weekend to date of 2023. AND NEXT WEEK is likely to average a stunning 16-degrees ABOVE NORMAL! What we’re seeing is nothing short of a real start to springlike warmth and the warmest weather to date of 2023.

BUT IT’S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER, we’re heading into COOLER NEAR THE LAKE SEASON. So lake winds may cool lakefront areas below levels of inland temps on some of those otherwise mild days ahead. That will certainly be the case this Friday and Saturday—and to a lesser extent this coming Sunday.