Storms rumble through suburbs
A line of strong thunderstorms moved through the suburbs this morning. They were not considered severe at this time, but but produced nearly continuous lightning as well as torrential rain.
The storms moved quickly from west to east, and encompassed Lake, McHenry, Kane, Cook, and DuPage counties, officials from the National Weather Service said.
The worst part of the storms was the ran, officials said, capable of producing more than a half-inch of rain in under an hour, officials said.
Because of it, a flash flood warning has been issued for the five counties.
These storms, however, were not considered as severe as the storms of July 11, where sustained winds of up to 100 mph were recorded and knocked out power to just under 900,000 ComEd customers for up to six days.
A tree in the 200 block of North Batavia Avenue, between McKee and Illinois streets, fell on to Batavia Avenue (Route 31) during Friday's midmorning storm, taking electrical wires with it.
City of Batavia electrical workers are clearing the live wires, then street department workers will remove the tree from the street, according to Steve Lusted, Batavia electrical operations manager.
The break has knocked out power to several homes on Batavia Avenue.
Route 31 is closed in both directions while the work goes on.
Lusted said at 10:20 a.m. he expects the cleanup to take an hour or two.
Richard Castro, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the storms are recording wind gusts of about 40 mph, and there are no tornado warnings.
“It really looks worse than it is, at this point,” he said. “It has a dark shelf cloud, carries a lot of rain, and there is some surface to air lightning strikes with it, but its really nothing compared to what we experienced on July 11.”
The storms are expected to clear the area by noon or 1 p.m. Castro said, and be replaced by sunshine until this evening.
Portions of McHenry and Lake counties have received between 2 to 3 inches of rain and an additional inch or more is possible before noon, according to the National Weather Service
Runoff from the excessive rainfall may cause flash flooding. The northern half of Lake and McHenry counties would be most at risk for flash flooding and additional rainfall, officials said.
Check back to dailyherald.com later for additional updates as necessary.