Monday's storm across Chicago was unusually packed with lightning: NWS

Lightning strike in Chicago. Photo credit Getty Images

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — In addition to torrential rain and powerful winds, the storm system that swept through the Chicago area Monday generated far more lightning than usual.

Kevin Doom, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Romeoville, said the super cell thunderstorm system that moved through in the evening registered about 500 lightning strikes within a five-minute period. Typical would be 100 to 200 in that time frame, he said.

“Five hundred strikes is something that you normally don’t see in the Midwest. It’s something you would have to go down to the Southeast or down to the tropics to see something like that,” he told WBBM Newsradio on Tuesday.

Doom said this week’s storm clouds were higher than usual, reaching more ice particles that produce electrical charges when they collide.