Late afternoon clearing allowed for scattered thunderstorms to rapidly develop ahead of an upper level disturbance. A cluster of storms produced isolated wind damage as it moved through the Peoria metro area.
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 episode as NWS ILX wrote it up.
Late afternoon clearing allowed for scattered thunderstorms to rapidly develop ahead of an upper level disturbance. A cluster of storms produced isolated wind damage as it moved through the Peoria metro area. Funnel clouds were also reported north of I-74 from McLean County to Vermilion County along outflow boundaries from previous thunderstorms.
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 Aug 8, 1:48 PM CST, 3 hours earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...CORRECTED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL 248 PM CDT MON AUG 8 2011 .DISCUSSION... ISSUED 230 PM CDT MON AUG 8 2011 OPERATIONAL MODELS IN GENERALLY GOOD AGREEMENT THROUGH FORECAST PERIOD LEADING TO ABOVE AVERAGE FORECAST CONFIDENCE. SHORT TERM...TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY WEAK TROUGH AXIS EXTENDING FROM NEAR MOLINE TO TERRE HAUTE IS SERVING AS THE PRIMARY FOCUS FOR SCATTERED THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT ACROSS CENTRAL ILLINOIS THIS AFTERNOON. MID-LEVEL SHORT-WAVE EVIDENT ON WATER VAPOR IMAGERY OVER EASTERN IOWA IS ENHANCING COVERAGE OF STORMS ACROSS NORTHWEST ILLINOIS. 12Z NAM SEEMS TO HAVE A DECENT HANDLE ON THE SITUATION...SO WILL TREND TOWARD ITS SOLUTION IN THE IMMEDIATE SHORT-TERM. AS SUCH...EXPECT BOUNDARY TO GRADUALLY SHIFT N/NE INTO NORTHERN ILLINOIS OVER THE NEXT FEW HOURS. WILL CARRY CHANCE POPS ACROSS THE BOARD THROUGH THE EVENING...WITH THE HIGHEST CHANCES ALONG/NORTHEAST OF THE I-74 CORRIDOR. ONCE THE TROUGH EXITS THE REGION AND DAYTIME INSTABILITY WANES...SHOWERS/STORMS WILL DISSIPATE...LEAVING BEHIND MOSTLY DRY CONDITIONS AFTER MIDNIGHT. NAM/GFS/ECMWF ALL AGREE THAT OVERNIGHT MCS ACTIVITY WILL REMAIN WELL TO THE S/SW OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS...PRIMARILY IN A CORRIDOR FROM SOUTHERN KANSAS E/SE INTO ARKANSAS. GFS/NAM DEPICT SECONDARY WAVE ROTATING AROUND JAMES BAY LOW DURING THE DAY TUESDAY. ALTHOUGH...BULK OF MOISTURE WILL BE SHUNTED EAST WITH THE INITIAL SYSTEM TONIGHT. THERE MAY REMAIN ENOUGH RESIDUAL MOISTURE TO PRODUCE A FEW THUNDERSTORMS GIVEN THE COOLER MID-LEVEL TEMPS AND RESULTANT LAPSE RATES. BUFR SOUNDINGS SUGGEST CAPE OVER 1000 J/KG NRN FORECAST AREA. WILL RETAIN A SLIGHT CHANCE POP. BARNES/BARKER LONG TERM...TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS IN AT THE SURFACE TUESDAY NIGHT INTO THURSDAY. SOME CLOUDS WILL STILL BE LIKELY GIVEN THE WEAK CYCLONIC CURVATURE TO THE MID-LEVEL FLOW...BUT WITH DEW POINTS EXPECTED TO DROP INTO THE 50S AND LIGHT WINDS...OVERNIGHT LOWS SHOULD RANGE FROM THE UPPER 50S TO LOWER 60S. TEMPS AT 850 MB ARE EXPECTED TO FALL TO NEAR 10C. THE AFTERNOON CUMULUS SHOULD ALSO HELP TO KEEP THE DAYTIME HIGHS FROM REACHING NEAR SEASONAL NORMALS WITH SOME HIGHS REMAINING IN THE 70S IN THE NORTHERN PORTION OF THE FORECAST AREA WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY. NEXT SYSTEM IS PROGGED TO BEGIN TO IMPACT ILLINOIS THURSDAY NIGHT WITH INCREASING CLOUDINESS AND THEN SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. THE GFS ENSEMBLES SUGGEST THAT THE OPERATIONAL MODEL MAY BE A BIT OF AN OUTLIER ON THE HIGH SIDE ON MOISTURE AND DRY AIR MASS ALREADY IN PLACE SHOULD DELAY PRECIP ONSET. WILL UNDERCUT GUIDANCE POPS A BIT FOR THE END OF THE WEEK KEEPING THEM IN THE CHANCE CATEGORY. MID-LEVEL FLOW IS MODERATE WITH THIS WAVE BUT INSTABILITY WILL BE LIMITED...SO ANY THREAT OF SEVERE SHOULD BE LOW. IN THE WAKE OF THIS WAVE...ONCE AGAIN HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS IN WITH 850 TEMPS FALLING INTO THE 11-13C RANGE BRINGING COOLER THAN SEASONAL NORMAL TEMPS. SOME DIFFERENCES BEGIN TO BECOME APPARENT EARLY NEXT WEEK WITH THE ECMWF DEVELOPING A MORE MERIDIONAL FLOW PATTERN. SENSIBLE WEATHER DIFFERENCES ARE SMALL THOUGH AND WILL GENERALLY FOLLOW A DRY AND COOL FORECAST CONTINUING. BARKER && .AVIATION... ISSUED 1241 PM CDT MON AUG 8 2011 WEAK TROUGH AXIS/WIND SHIFT LINE CURRENTLY EXTENDING FROM NEAR KGBG...TO KDEC...TO KRSV WILL SERVE AS THE PRIMARY FOCUS FOR CONVECTION ACROSS CENTRAL ILLINOIS THIS AFTERNOON. LATEST SATELLITE/RADAR IMAGERY IS ALREADY SHOWING WIDELY SCATTERED STORMS DEVELOPING ALONG THIS BOUNDARY AND EXPECT THIS TREND TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL HOURS. NAM SHIFTS THE TROUGH AXIS INTO NORTHERN ILLINOIS TOWARD 00Z...SO CHANCES FOR CONVECTION WILL LIKELY DIMINISH AFTER THEN. HAVE THEREFORE INCLUDED VCTS AT ALL TERMINALS BETWEEN 18Z AND 03Z. ONCE THE BOUNDARY LIFTS OUT OF THE AREA...SKIES WILL PARTIALLY CLEAR AND PATHCY FOG WILL BE POSSIBLE LATE TONIGHT. FORECAST SOUNDINGS AND NUMERIC GUIDANCE BOTH SUGGEST AT LEAST A SLIGHT REDUCTION IN VISBYS TOWARD DAWN...SO HAVE INCLUDED A TEMPO GROUP DOWN TO 4SM BETWEEN 08Z AND 12Z. WINDS WILL INIITALLY BE FROM THE S/SW AT 5 TO 10KT THIS AFTERNOON...THEN WILL GO LIGHT AND VARIABLE TONIGHT. WESTERLY WINDS OF 5 TO 10KT WILL RESUME BY TUESDAY MORNING. BARNES && .ILX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... NONE. &&
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL 313 PM CDT MON AUG 8 2011 ILZ027>031-036>038-040>057-061>063-066>068-071>073-091100- CASS-CHAMPAIGN-CHRISTIAN-CLARK-CLAY-COLES-CRAWFORD-CUMBERLAND- DE WITT-DOUGLAS-EDGAR-EFFINGHAM-FULTON-JASPER-KNOX-LAWRENCE-LOGAN- MACON-MARSHALL-MASON-MCLEAN-MENARD-MORGAN-MOULTRIE-PEORIA-PIATT- RICHLAND-SANGAMON-SCHUYLER-SCOTT-SHELBY-STARK-TAZEWELL-VERMILION- WOODFORD- 313 PM CDT MON AUG 8 2011 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS...EAST CENTRAL ILLINOIS AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT AN UPPER-LEVEL DISTURBANCE TRACKING OUT OF IOWA WILL TRIGGER SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS MAINLY NORTH-CENTRAL ILLINOIS INTO THE EARLY EVENING HOURS. WIDESPREAD SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT ANTICIPATED...HOWEVER A FEW OF THE STRONGER STORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING GUSTY WINDS...FREQUENT LIGHTNING...AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL. MOST OF THE STORMS WILL BE CONFINED TO LOCATIONS ALONG AND NORTH OF I-74 THROUGH ABOUT 9 PM. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY A COLD FRONT WILL APPROACH THE REGION LATE IN THE WEEK...BRINGING ANOTHER CHANCE FOR THUNDERSTORMS FRIDAY INTO SATURDAY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED THROUGH TONIGHT BARNES
The Lincoln radar (KILX), 107 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:46 UTC.
6 thunderstorm wind, 2 funnel cloud. Local standard time, as filed.
Wind gusts were estimated around 60 mph with a thunderstorm outflow.
Numerous trees were damaged and power lines were blown down in the city of Peoria.
Several trees were toppled, one of which fell onto power lines and caused a power outage in a subdivision near the Greater Peoria Airport.
Several trees were blown down between East Peoria and Creve Coeur on Pekin Avenue.
A one foot diameter tree fell onto a house in Creve Coeur.
Several trees were blown down on cars and houses in the 1100 block of Springfield Road in East Peoria. Wind damage occurred over a 2 block radius.
A funnel cloud was sighted by numerous people between Hudson and Lexington, including the Lake Bloomington recreational areas. There was no evidence of debris near the ground, and no reports of damage.
Spotters reported a funnel cloud near the town of Henning. The funnel was short lived and there were no reports of debris or damage.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Illinois in 2011Every state in 2011This day in weather historyWarnings in Illinois, August 2011
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: 344573, 344574, 344575, 344577, 344578, 344579, 344581, 344582.