15 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it. 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 9, 1:09 PM CST, 4 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>073-101100- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL 225 PM CDT FRI MAY 9 2003 ...A SIGNIFICANT OUTBREAK OF SEVERE WEATHER IS POSSIBLE ACROSS PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS SATURDAY... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK FOR SEVERE WEATHER ACROSS CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. MOIST AND UNSTABLE AIR IN PLACE ACROSS ILLINOIS WILL INTERACT WITH BOUNDARIES PRODUCED BY LAST NIGHTS THUNDERSTORMS TO DEVELOP SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS THIS AFTERNOON INTO THIS EVENING. SOME OF THESE STORMS MAY BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS...MAINLY SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 72. LATER THIS EVENING AND OVERNIGHT A LARGE COMPLEX OF THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO MOVE INTO THE REGION FROM THE SOUTHWEST. LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING WINDS...AND VERY HEAVY RAINFALL WILL BE ASSOCIATED WITH THE STRONGER STORMS AS THEY MOVE ACROSS ILLINOIS INTO THE MORNING HOURS ON SATURDAY. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR A SIGNIFICANT OUTBREAK OF SEVERE WEATHER ACROSS PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO MOVE FROM OKLAHOMA INTO SOUTHEAST IOWA BY MIDDLE AFTERNOON. A TRAILING COLD FRONT WILL BEGIN TO MOVE INTO ILLINOIS FROM THE WEST BY LATE AFTERNOON AND CROSS THE STATE DURING THE EVENING HOURS. THE COMBINATION OF THE NEARBY FRONT...MUGGY AIR ENTRENCHED ACROSS THE REGION...AN UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE APPROACHING FROM THE WEST...AND SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN WIND DIRECTION WITH HEIGHT...WILL PRODUCE AN ENVIRONMENT CONDUCIVE FOR LONG-LIVED SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING TORNADOES...LARGE HAIL...STRONG DAMAGING WINDS...AND VERY HEAVY RAINFALL. RESIDENTS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS SHOULD REMAIN WEATHER ALERT ON SATURDAY AND BE PREPARED TO TAKE ACTION IF SEVERE WEATHER WATCHES AND WARNINGS ARE ISSUED. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS LIKELY SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. && 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) BARKER
The St Louis radar (KLSX), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:31 UTC.
15 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Thunderstorm winds destroyed a barn and damaged a machine shed on the west side of Glasgow.
Three quarter inch hail was reported throughout the county with one report of golfball sized hail at the New Salem State Park.
A tornado briefly touched down west of Chatham. Several trees were blown down and a few homes sustained siding damage. Also, an unoccupied semi was blown over.
A large tree was snapped off, siding blown off of two houses and a basketball post was bent in half.
A large swath of hail fell over McLean County from Stanford through Danvers to Carlock and Gridley. The largest hail fell in Stanford with a 4.5 inch hail report. In Danvers, 2.5 inch hail was reported as well as a broken windshield on a truck from the hail.
Several trees were blown down between Hudson and Colfax.
Several trees and tree limbs were blown down as well as a power pole.
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: 5355399, 5355400, 5355401, 5355402, 5355404, 5355403, 5355405, 5355406, 5355407, 5355408, 5355409, 5355706, 5355707, 5355708, 5355709, 5355710, 5355711, 5355712, 5355713, 5355714, 5355715.