CHICAGO — A storm with gusts up to 81 mph howled across the nation’s midsection Tuesday, snapping trees and power lines, ripping off roofs, delaying flights and soaking commuters hunched under crumpled umbrellas.
Spanning from the Dakotas to the eastern Great Lakes, the unusual system mesmerized meteorologists because of its size and because it had barometric pressure similar to a Category 3 hurricane.
Scientists said the storm had the characteristics of a blizzard minus the snow.
“If it were colder, we’d have a blizzard with this system,” said David Imy, operations chief at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm PredictionCenter in Norman, Okla. But temperatures were in the 50s and 60s, instead of the 20s.
The atmospheric agency said the system’s pressure reading was among the lowest ever in a nontropical storm in the mainland U.S.
Agency spokesman Susan Buchanan says the storm is within the top-five strongest storms in terms of low pressure, but may not be the strongest on record.
“It’s actually pretty impressive: We’re seeing wind, hail, rain, tornadoes, pretty much the sky is the limit,” said Travis Hartman, energy weather manager and meteorologist for MDA Federal Inc.’s Earth-Sat Energy Weather in Rockville, Md. “Everywhere from Chicago to the AppalachianMountains looks to see some sort of severe weather.”
The storm blew in from the Pacific Northwest on the strength of a jet stream that is about one-third stronger than normal for this time of year, Imy said. As the system moved into the nation’s heartland, it drew in warm air needed to fuel thunderstorms. Then the winds intensified and tornados formed.
By Tuesday morning, sustained winds were about 35-40 mph. A gust of 81 mph was recorded in Butlerville, Ohio, and 80 mph in Greenfield, Ind., according to the atmospheric administration.
The storms were headed toward the East Coast by late Tuesday afternoon. Weather service meteorologist Charles Mott said the winds might weaken, but a squall line was moving ahead of the storm, causing more tornado warnings.
A tornado touched down in Racine County, Wis., where two people were injured when a section of roof was torn off a tractor factory, and in Van Wert County, Ohio, near the Indiana border, where a barn was flattened and a tractor-trailer and camper were flipped over. A tornado also touched downin Peotone, Ill., where three people were injured when a home’s roof came off, and twisters were suspected in several other states.
In the Chicago suburb of Lindenhurst, a woman was injured when a branch fell about 65 feet from a large tree, crashed into her car and impaled her abdomen. She was taken to a hospital in fair condition, authorities said.
Meteorologists said the storm’s barometric pressure readings were comparable to those of a Category 3 hurricane but with much weaker winds. The wind gusts were only as strong as a tropical storm. Category 3 hurricanes have winds from 111 to 130 mph.
Tom Skilling, a meteorologist with Chicago station WGN-TV, said the size of the storm - 31 states were under some sort of weather advisory, from blizzards to thunderstorms to tornadoes - also was unusual.
Severe thunderstorm warnings blanketed much of the Midwest, and tornado watches were issued from Arkansas to Ohio.
Eleven states were under a high-wind warning: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin and parts of Kentucky. The weather service said the winds would subside Tuesday evening but could pick up again today.
“It is not just a six-hour wind event, it is a prolonged wind event for a couple of days,” said Tom Kines, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pa.
Meanwhile, much of North Dakota was under a blizzard warning. The weather service said up to 10 inches of snow could fall in some areas into this morning across North Dakota and into northern South Dakota.
In the Chicago area, morning commuters faced blustery, wind-driven rain as they waited for trains. Some huddled beneath railway overpasses to stay out of the gusts, dashing to the platform at the last minute.
More than 450 flights were canceled and others delayed at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, a major hub for American and United airlines. The storms also disrupted flights at the Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Minneapolis airports.
Information for this article was contributed by Seth Borenstein, Karen Hawkins, Carla K. Johnson, Tamara Sparks, Lindsey Tanner, David Aguilar, John Flesher, Tom Davies, Jeannie Nuss, Doug Whiteman, Gretchen Ehlke and Jim Suhr of The Associated Press; and by Brian K.
Sullivan and Mary Jane Credeur of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/27/2010