(OLNEY/NEWTON) As the strong storm system moved through our downstate area last night, we had real sporadic rainfall totals, but very consistent strong winds and dangerous lightning. We’ll have a very cold day and night on tap for this Monday with frigid wind chill values which will improve a bit tomorrow, followed by much warmer weather and less wind by Wednesday, continuing into the weekend. In fact, the warmest day of this week will be Saturday with highs in the low 70’s, although we might see some flurries late tomorrow night before the precipitation ends this week. Listen for updates & monitor a NOAA Weather Alert Radio for forecast details.
(NEWTON/OLNEY) The rather fast-moving storm system last night included only seven weather statements from the National Weather Service within 90 minutes, from 7:00 to 8:30, for our downstate area. There were two tornado warnings issued for the counties of Effingham, Clay, Richland, and Jasper, along with five severe thunderstorm warnings for the counties of Clay, Effingham, Jasper, Richland, Crawford, Lawrence, Edwards, and Wabash. Two doppler indicated tornadoes were reported in Clay and Richland Counties, although nothing has been confirmed as of yet by the National Weather Service. With rainfall amounts averaging from a low of two-tenths of an inch to a high of over two inches, other area reports included wind gusts of between 45 and 55 miles-per-hour, downed tree limbs and trees, some hail, blown down utility lines with some power outages, and some damaged buildings, but no injuries reported at this point in time. Our temperatures dropped 30 degrees over seven hours on the strong westerly wind, from 67 degrees at 5:30 last evening, down to 37 degrees by 12:30 early this morning.