11 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 2 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Lincoln, IL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 8, 1:05 PM CST, 2 hours 20 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL 205 PM CDT THU MAY 8 2003 NUMEROUS FCST CONCERNS IN THE SHORT TERM...STEMMING AROUND SVR WEATHER THREATS AND HEAVY PCPN POSSIBILITIES. LOOKS LIKE ONE ROUND LATER TONIGHT THAT MAY BE MORE OF A HEAVY RAINER...WITH A MUCH MORE SERIOUS LOOKING SEVERE SITUATION LATE TOMORROW AFTERNOON AND EVENING. LATEST SFC CHART SHOWING THE WARM FRONT HAS NOW PROGRESSED NWRD TO AROUND CHI...EXTENDING ACROSS N IN AND CNTRL OHIO. MAIN SFC LOW NOW OVER S-CNTRL MN WITH COLD FRONT DROPPING SWRD OVER IA AND NW MO. SFC DEWPOINTS HAVE SOARED INTO THE LOW 70S AND TEMPS INTO THE LOW AND MID 80S. SAT PICS SHOWING THAT THE CU FIELD HAS DEVELOPED TODAY AS EXPECTED...BUT WEAK CAP KEEPING THINGS AT BAY THUS FAR. MODELS LOOKS SIMILAR THE NEXT FEW DAYS SO NO REAL STRONG PREFERENCE. PER HPC DISCUSSIONS/CHAT ROOM...HEAVED LEANED AWAY FROM GFS SOLUTION OF UPPER LOW OVER PLAINS STATES WED/THU AND WENT WITH A SLIGHTLY MORE OPTIMISTIC ECMWF SOLUTION. SENSIBLE WEATHER...MODELS SHOWING VERY STRONG INSTABILITY THIS AFTERNOON OVER S IL AND SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF OUR CWA...WILL HAVE TO WATCH THIS AREA FOR SOME LATE AFTERNOON/EARLY EVENING CONVECTION..SOME OF WHICH COULD BE SEVERE. OVERALL THOUGH...EXPECT THE MAIN SHOW TONIGHT TO BE AFTER MIDNIGHT. LATEST MODEL RUNS HAVE ALSO SLOWED DOWN THE MCS LOOKING ACTIVITY ABOUT 3-6 HOURS ALSO. NOTED LATEST QPFERD GRAPHICS...WILL DEFINITELY MAKE MENTION OF HEAVY RAINS IN ZONES BUT WILL HOLD SHORT OF ISSUING A FFA. COULD ALSO BE SOME ISOLATED SEVERE TONIGHT (INITIALLY) ALSO. EXPECT SHRA/TSRA LIKELY IN THE MORNING TOMORROW. THEN LOOK FOR A CALM PERIOD MIDDAY-AFTERNOON AS THE ATMOSPHERE RECOVERS/RELOADS. SEVERE THREAT TOMORROW AFTERNOON AND EVENING LOOKS PRETTY SERIOUS AND AGREE WITH SPC MODERATE THREAT. OUR THINKING AT THIS TIME IS AFTER 21Z TOMORROW...POSSIBLY CLOSER TO 00Z AND LASTING UNTIL 06-07Z OR SO. MAY GO AHEAD AND MAKE MENTION OF SOME STORMS POSSIBLY SEVERE FOR TOMORROW AFTERNOON ALTHOUGH DONT NORMALLY MENTION IT THAT FAR IN ADVANCE. WE WILL ALSO FRESHEN UP THE HWO PRODUCT AGAIN THIS AFTERNOON. SUNDAY LOOKS MUCH CALMER...COOLER. CHC SHOWERS ACROSS THE NORTHERN HALF OR SO. HIGH TEMPS COME BACK DOWN INTO THE LOW-MID 60S. COOLER AND MUCH MORE STABLE WEATHER TO DOMINATE MOST OF NEXT WEEK. I KEPT MON-TUE PARTLY CLOUDY AND NO PCPN. DROPPED MENTION OF ALL POPS ON WED. HPC FEELING THAT THE GFS IS WAY OVERDOING THE CENTRAL-UPPER PLAINS LOW WED-THU AND ENSEMBLE MEANS DONT SUPPORT IT. LEANED MORE TOWARD THE ECMWF. KEPT LOW CHC POPS IN DATABASE FOR (FOR NOW) ON THU OVER S 2/3 OF CWA. KEPT FRIDAY DRY. ISC GRIDS ALREADY SENT. FURTHER COORDINATION WELCOME. .ILX...NONE. HALL
ILZ027>031-036>038-040>057-061>063-066>068-071>073-091100- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...CORRECTED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL 1239 PM CDT THU MAY 8 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS THROUGH THIS EVENING. CURRENT INDICATIONS SUGGEST THE MAIN SEVERE WEATHER THREAT IN THIS AREA WILL BE BETWEEN THE HOURS OF NOON AND MIDNIGHT. LOW PRESSURE OVER EASTERN COLORADO THIS MORNING IS EXPECTED TO SHIFT NORTHEAST INTO SOUTHWESTERN MINNESOTA BY DAYBREAK FRIDAY. A WARM FRONT STRETCHED EAST OF THE LOW WILL CONTINUE TO BE THE FOCUS FOR THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT FROM ACROSS MISSOURI AND THE SOUTHERN HALF OF ILLINOIS THIS AFTERNOON...THEN SHIFT NORTHWARD THIS EVENING AND INTO THE OVERNIGHT HOURS. THE RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER WILL BE FOUND ACROSS CENTRAL AND SOUTHEASTERN ILLINOIS THIS AFTERNOON AND INTO THE EARLY EVENING HOURS...LIFTING INTO NORTHERN ILLINOIS AROUND MIDNIGHT. THE MAIN SEVERE WEATHER THREAT WILL BE LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY THERE IS ANOTHER RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER ACROSS CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND SATURDAY NIGHT. ANOTHER AREA OF LOW PRESSURE WILL DEVELOP ACROSS THE SOUTHERN PLAINS SATURDAY MORNING. THIS LOW WILL MOVE NORTHEASTWARD...BRINGING A WARM FRONT NORTH INTO ILLINOIS LATER IN THE DAY. THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ALONG THIS FRONT AS IT MOVES NORTH THROUGH ILLINOIS SATURDAY AFTERNOON SATURDAY NIGHT. SOME OF THESE STORMS MAY BE SEVERE. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NECESSARY THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED AGAIN SATURDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT ACROSS ALL OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS. && THIS PRODUCT...ALONG WITH OTHER WEATHER...HYDROLOGIC AND CLIMATE INFORMATION...IS AVAILABLE ON THE WEB AT: HTTP://WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/ILX (ALL IN LOWER CASE) BYRD
The Lincoln radar (KILX), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:22 UTC.
11 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Thunderstorm winds blew down several trees, power poles and power lines. Also, a garage door, carport and dog pen were damaged.
Thunderstorm winds blew down several trees in Newton.
A tornado briefly touched down in a field. No damage or injuries were reported.
Very heavy rain fell on already saturated ground countywide. Numerous roads were flooded for a time due to the heavy rain. One motorist was stranded after driving into a flooded roadway 7 miles south of Altamont and had to be rescued. No deaths or injuries were reported.
Very heavy rain fell on already saturated ground countywide. Numerous roads were flooded for a time due to the heavy rain.
Hail was reported in Jerome, Buffalo and Mechanicsburg.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Illinois in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Illinois, 2003Warnings in Illinois, May 2003
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5356071, 5356073, 5356072, 5355331, 5355398, 5356074, 5356075, 5355322, 5355323, 5355324, 5355326, 5355325, 5355327, 5355328, 5355329, 5355330.