Severe Line Batters Illinois With 60–75 mph Winds as Tornado Watches Remain

Overview

• The consolidated line of storms, which strengthened Friday evening over western and northwest Illinois, produced widespread 45–65 mph gusts seen on KILX radar and MRMS data.
• SPC kept Tornado Watch 131 in effect and signaled an eastward extension into eastern Illinois as strengthening low-level winds near 50–55 knots and rising near-ground wind shear supported embedded circulations that can spin up brief tornadoes within the line.
• An organized bowing cluster near the Missouri Ozarks accelerated toward northwestern St. Louis with a risk for damaging wind gusts and a brief tornado or two just north of the surface front.
• WPC warned that training storms will likely cause flash flooding in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, with urban flooding expected in the Milwaukee area where recent rain and snowmelt have left soils saturated.
• A separate linear band over Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and northwest Arkansas was producing 1–2 inch per hour rain rates, and forecasters said isolated flash flooding is possible as the band drifts toward the I-40 corridor overnight.