Heavy rains over parts of central Illinois on Wednesday
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[July 12, 2013]
According to the National Weather
Service in Lincoln, severe thunderstorms did not materialize as
originally expected Tuesday night, mainly due to a push of warm air
about 6,000 to 10,000 feet above the surface. This warm layer
essentially acted as a "cap" for storm development along the
advancing cold front. As a result, little or no convection formed
until Wednesday morning, when an upper-level wave tracking into the
Great Lakes brought cooling temperatures aloft. Once this
destabilizing influence took place, numerous showers and
thunderstorms developed ahead of the frontal boundary.
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Thanks to copious amounts of moisture in the environment, the storms
were very efficient rain-producers, resulting in rainfall rates as
high as 3 inches per hour. Not all locations experienced
thunderstorms, but those that did picked up some impressive amounts
of rain in a short period of time. The heaviest rainfall was
concentrated in a corridor from northern Sangamon County eastward
into Macon County, where amounts of 2 to 4 inches were common.
The highest total of 3.82 inches was measured 2 miles southwest
of Latham in southeast Logan County, where flash flooding occurred,
with 8 inches of water flowing over Route 121 at 2000th Avenue at
10:40 a.m. Wednesday. The rain measurement was by an observer with the
Significant Weather Observing Program.
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Lightning also started a
house fire in Lincoln in the 800 block of
North Sherman at 8:03 a.m. Wednesday, and a large tree branch was blown down
at Fifth and State Street in Lincoln.
Shortly after 10 a.m., numerous trees were blown down over
eastern Vermilion County.
To see the rainfall map from this event, go to
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/?n=swop-precip
[Text from
National Weather Service,
Lincoln office] |