(OLNEY/NEWTON) It’s more fair and dry weather on tap for today as a high pressure ridge continues to dominate our Midwestern weather conditions. After more of the same quiet weather tomorrow and Friday, we’ll start the new month of June with some spotty rain chances on both Saturday and Sunday, with higher humidity levels and some warmer air moving in for the weekend. Our downstate rain chances then increase as we move into next week. Stay tuned for updates and monitor a NOAA Weather Alert Radio for forecast details.
(LINCOLN) The National Weather Service has released details about two tornadoes that it’s investigators have determined touched down this past Sunday night along the U.S. Route 50 corridor in Marion, Clay, Richland, and Lawrence Counties. The first twister originally touched down on the south side of Stephen Forbes State Park in Marion County at around 7:29 and was on the ground for an estimated 14 minutes with a maximum width of 300 yards moving just over 8 miles into Clay County, just over 5 miles northwest of Xenia. Rated an EF-2 tornado, with estimated peak winds at 130 miles-per-hour, the twister’s most damage was to an area farm, demolishing several farm buildings. Then nearly an hour later, at 8:27, an EF-1 tornado, is believed to touch down for 10 minutes, from just over 1 mile south of Sumner, moving east/northeast to just south of Bridgeport. This twister had a maximum width of 250 yards, moving nearly 7 miles, with estimated peak winds at 105 miles-per-hour, causing mostly damage to trees, in some cases snapping the trunks, plus some outbuilding and roof damage reported in the area. But in both cases, there were no injuries reported. While no official touch downs were noted elsewhere, the storms’ straight-line winds were recorded between 45 and 75 miles-per-hour, causing multiple damage reports, not only to trees and buildings, but utility poles and power lines as well in the counties of Richland, Jasper, Lawrence, Wayne, Wabash, Edwards, Marion, Fayette, and Effingham. Three other downstate tornadoes have also been confirmed by the National Weather Service. Two in Clinton County, in Carlyle and New Baden, and in Johnson County at the Lake of Egpyt.