INDIANAPOLIS — What a stormy Thursday afternoon. Central Indiana found itself in the crosshairs of a wind machine. The system began earlier in the day near Nebraska/Iowa and then rode along the edge of the hot dome producing a 600-plus-mile path of wind reports and damage. This qualifies as a derecho and it's one of several heavy storm clusters between now and the end of the weekend.
At the time of posting, there were nearly 200,000 without power in Indiana and many more thousands in Illinois. Numerous trees and powerlines were knocked over by a bowing storm complex that took less that two hours to cross the state between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. at speeds of 60-70 mph.
But a couple of welcomed byproducts from this complex was much-needed rainfall and for dispersing the stubborn dense smoke layer. For the first time in several days, the Air Quality Index in Indianapolis, and central Indiana, is green (good).
Smoke layer modeling doesn't show anything returning in the immediate future. But without substantial rain north of the border, there may be more bouts of smoke in the future this summer...to what degree that's uncertain.
Rainfall certainly won't put a dent in the drought but any rain is welcomed rain. Highest amounts (2"+) occurred in western-southwestern Indiana with light to very little rain in eastern-northeastern Indiana.
All is quiet and comfortable tonight. But we'll be looking upstream in the central U.S. for our next storm complex.
Please know that timing, coverage, and severity of these systems are challenging to forecast and highly subject to change.
It's fair game from midday to evening for storm clusters Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - each of which could produce flooding rain rates, damaging wind, and frequent lightning.
Stay Weather Aware and follow our forecasts for updates.
