Well the day started with a round of storms coming through around 230-3pm, as I sat there in my office miserable and reading all the warnings of hail and wind right by my house. Nature would save the worst round for when I got home, thankfully.

Started my chase in a bit of a pessimistic mood but figured eh why not, so I shot down past Oak Forest, over 1-57 on Cicero, got some dinky hail but some good lightning.

I stopped home briefly to get some visual radar updates to what was going on, and shot back out. My NOAA radio was screaming warning after warning by this point. I decided my best bet was to head to the North Riverside area, there my van got pounded by nickle size hail [.88 inches, or .13 inches ABOVE severe level.]

After that I was satisfied, ready to return home, however a new warning flashed on the NOAA radio, storm headed for New Lenox with golf ball size hail, I'm far but I can make it. With the help of a friend's map skills he got me there from North Riverside in about 20 minutes which is excellent time. Although the storm had weakened and the hail was dinky, I saw more incredible lightning, including a strike that was probably only 50 yards from me [wish I had that on camera!]

So back home I'm going now when the radio flashed a new warning.  A derecho type event heading for Willow Springs, Hickory Hills, Burbak and Midway Airpoirt with 70+ mph winds reported, Since that is my home area anyway it was perfect timing, I caught up with the insane winds on Archer road near Resurreciton Cemetary. Now this is really only my 2nd year of serious chasing, and it was the most intense wind I have experienced. It was amazing and almost scary at a point. I loved it.

At that point I reported some of the downed trees I saw as a result to the NWS, and about 15 minutes later I heard the report broadcast over my NOAA radio. I was quite proud of myself, I remember the exact words "6-8 inch trees were reported down by a trained weather spotter." It was nice to know they take the reports seriously.

I came home finally, small trees were down, our flag was ripped off our house, chairs were in the street and garbage cans everywhere and the alley was flooded about 6 inches deep into our garage. It was a very intense night of storms! Those who think severe weather doesn't happen in the city...you're wrong!!

The radar images at the time of the storms crossing, first the basic one from weather.com, followed by the more advanced one from GRLevel3 which is the tracking software I use.

The red box is the warning area, the hollow green triangle represents hail, the red cross is where my house is located, the white line is the storm track.

VIDEOS: unfortunately my video camera is out of commission briefly, so these were shot on my digital camera so I'm ashamed of the quality. It does a bad job of capturing the real experience but hey, I do what I can with what I got, if you want better stuff then give me money for better equipment =P

Nickle size hail: Where I caught up with the hail, just over I-290 and 1st ave.

Lightning strike: Cool lightning strike just past 167th and Cicero. About a minute into the clip, I cant edit digital camera footage just yet so I must post the whole video.

WIND!!!! This is about 30 seconds after the insane winds kicked in, I wasn't recording at the time they started and for the first few moments I was too focused on trying to keep my van on the road, so by the time I start recording the strongest gusts are over, but its still pretty intense. I love the howling sound. I need a partner to record this stuff while I drive!

The footage is kind of weak and doesn't do the wind justice, but the day after revealed its true power, this is a damage swath that starts about 2 blocks north of my house and continues through Oak Lawn, which was the hardest hit.

It takes a fairly high wind to topple a whole tree.

I was quite surprised I didn't see more of this:

Pine trees down at a friend's apartment complex.

They're lucky that tree wasn't bigger.

Like say...this one.

All in all a crazy weather day for the Chicago-land area. The kind I love. Yet another good example of how this kind of damage can happen anywhere at anytime. The best thing to do is be prepared and always take watches and warnings seriously!