ST. LOUIS - The Metro East Illinois area was smacked with some heavy winds and storms that included some hail late Thursday afternoon, April 18, 2024, into the evening.
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The National Weather Service in St. Louis said most of the punch of the storm rolled through the region between about 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. On Friday morning, the National Weather Service said it has dispatched teams to go out and survey damage and determine if any tornadoes were present through the widespread storm.
“We had more wind than hail on the Illinois side,” meteorologist Jayson Gosselin said. “We had reports of 1.75-inch golf-ball-sized hail near Roodhouse in Greene County. Also, there were reports of 1.5-inch hail just south of Benld in Macoupin County and 1.25-inch hail in Okawville. Columbia had some tree limb broken reports and there were reports of a roof blown off and trees down in Prairietown. One mile east of Troy there were reports of power poles downed also damages in Worden and the Marine areas.
“Our surveyors will be out in those areas today determining the level of the winds and damages. We don’t yet want to officially say there were tornadoes involved, but that will be determined today and tomorrow.”
“It was a widespread storm and it kind of became a line and was embedded more in concentrated areas,” he added. “There possibly were some tornadoes involved with winds probably over 70 mph.”
The bleachers were flipped onto the racetrack at World Wide Technology Speedway in Madison during the storm.
Ameren Illinois reported the number involved in power outages at one point at 8:10 p.m. on Thursday as 2,900 customers and as of 8:20 a.m. on Friday it was down to 305. Those customers should all be back in service by 5 p.m., Brian Bretsch, a public relations spokesperson for Ameren Illinois, said.
Bretsch said most of the outages involved in the 2,900 on the Metro East Illinois side were in Granite City.
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