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Dangerous Heat Continues in the Central and Southern U.S.; Severe Weather and Heavy Rain in the Northern Plains

Dangerous, prolonged heat is expected across portions of the Central and Southeast U.S. through July. Scattered severe thunderstorms are expected over parts of the northern Plains into the upper Mississippi Valley today, with damaging winds and large hail as the primary threats. Heavy rainfall could lead to areas of flooding across the northern Plains, Upper Midwest, Southeast and Southwest. Read More >

 

In this section, the severe weather climatology in the NWS Chicago forecast area is shown by number of days with at least one report. All days with severe weather are weighted equally providing a representative idea of the number of days with severe weather in our area.  In other words, this is the most representative way to look at severe weather climatology in our area since days with a large number of reports (e.g. an outbreak) will not skew the database.


Severe weather can be broken up into three categories, as defined below: 

  Tornado (EF Scale) Damaging Wind Gust (More info) Hail Diameter
All Report Any Rating Any Speed >= 58 mph Any Size >=1"
Significant Report F/EF2, F/EF3, F/EF4, F/EF5 >= 75 mph >= 2"
Non-Significant Report F/EFU, F/EF0, F/EF/1 < 75 mph

< 2"

 

Page last updated: May 2025

Period of record: 1950 - 2024

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Additional recaps can be found on the NWS Chicago Past Events Page
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