Record hail loss in Illinois and adjacent states

Illinois and three adjacent states were hit by devastating hailstorms on April 13-14, 2006.Property losses totaled $1.822 billion, an amount considerably more than any prior hail-storm event in the nation.The huge loss in April 2006 was largely due to several severe storms with frequent large hail hitting Chicago and several other metropolitan areas.A highly unstable air mass that developed on April 13 led to a large number of hailstorms in a relatively small region, and several supercell thunderstorms formed and produced large hailswaths across portions ofIllinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin during a 30-hour period.The excessive storm damages in Illinois caused losses amounting to $648 million with major damages in Moline-Rock Island, Peoria, and several Chicago suburbs.