{"id":69379,"date":"2026-03-10T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=69379"},"modified":"2026-03-15T22:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T22:05:27","slug":"severe-thunderstorms-produce-tornadoes-and-hail-as-large-as-6-00-in-diameter-across-northern-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/69379","title":{"rendered":"Severe thunderstorms produce tornadoes and hail as large as 6.10″ in diameter across northern Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"

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1-minute GOES-19 Visible and Infrared images, with time-matched (+\/- 3 minutes) SPC Storm Reports plotted in red\/white, from 2055-2335 UTC on 10 March [click to play animated GIF]<\/p><\/div>1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector<\/strong><\/a> GOES-19 (GOES-East)<\/em> Visible and Infrared images with time-matched plots of SPC Storm Reports<\/strong><\/a> (above)<\/strong><\/em> showed thunderstorms that produced several tornadoes and numerous reports of hail — most notably, as large as 6.10″<\/strong><\/a> in diameter near Kankakee, Illinois at 2328 UTC<\/strong><\/a>. If verified, that would be the largest hailstone on record for the state of Illinois (NWS Chicago event summary<\/strong><\/a>).<\/p>\n

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1-minute GOES-19 Visible images, with\/without an overlay of GLM Flash Points, from 1926-2335 UTC on 10 March [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>1-minute GOES-19 Visible images (above)<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and Infrared images (below)<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0included an overlay of GLM<\/strong><\/a> Flash Points, which showed abundant lightning activity with these severe thunderstorms.<\/p>\n

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1-minute GOES-19 Infrared images, with\/without an overlay of GLM Flash Points, from 1926 UTC on 10 March to 0435 UTC on 11 March [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>A toggle between GOES-19 Visible and Infrared images at 2100 UTC (below)<\/em><\/strong> showed an “orphan anvil” that was drifting to the northeast (located just north of the Chicago NWS forecast office, identifier KLOT, at that time) — which had developed around 2030 UTC, as the convective cap was beginning to erode just north of a cold front (orphan anvils often appear shortly before the onset of significant convective development, signalling that convective inhibition is weakening).<\/p>\n

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GOES-19 Visible and Infrared images at 2100 UTC on 10 March, showing an orphan anvil over northern Illinois [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>A toggle between GOES-19 Visible and Infrared images at 2259 UTC (below)<\/strong><\/em> displayed well-defined Enhanced-V<\/strong><\/a> and Above-Anvil Cirrus Plume<\/strong><\/a> (AACP) signatures, extending downwind (eastward) from a prominent overshooting top (cluster of darker black infrared pixels, exhibiting brightness temperatures as cold as -73\u00baC) over northeast Illinois. As the thunderstorm exhibiting the Enhanced-V\/AACP signature crossed border from Illinois to Indiana around 0008 UTC<\/strong><\/a>, it produced a tornado that was responsible for 2 fatalities.<\/p>\n

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GOES-19 Visible and Infrared images at 2259 UTC on 10 March, showing Enhanced-V and Above-Anvil Cirrus Plume signatures extending eastward across Illinois and Indiana [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>The coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperature of -73\u00baC roughly corresponded to a ~2 km overshoot of the Most Unstable (MU) air parcel\u2019s Equilibrium Level (EL), according to a plot of rawinsonde data from Lincoln, Illinois (below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Plot of rawinsonde data from Lincoln, Illinois at 0000 UTC on 11 March [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Visible and Infrared images with time-matched plots of SPC Storm Reports (above) showed thunderstorms that produced several tornadoes and numerous reports of hail — most notably, as large as 6.10″ in diameter near Kankakee, Illinois at 2328 UTC. If verified, that would be the largest hailstone on record for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":69404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,159,30,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-glm","category-goes-19","category-lightning","category-severe-convection"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69379"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69452,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69379\/revisions\/69452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}