Three different storms wore the same date. June 17th ran up 109 reports — 60 wind, 14 tornadoes, 35 hail — and the wind did most of the talking, a fast line that tore across the corn belt from Iowa into Illinois.
The hardest number came out of Iowa: a 94 mph gust at Albion. That's not the kind that rattles the gutters — that's straight-line wind in the same league as a strong tornado, the kind that peels ridge caps, lifts whole shingle courses, and lays trees flat. Iowa logged 31 reports, nearly all of it wind, with two tornadoes mixed in.
Illinois was the day's center of gravity — 51 reports, more than any other state, and a little of everything: 31 hail, 14 wind, and six confirmed tornadoes. The standout stone was 3-inch hail at Humboldt, baseball-plus ice that cracks shingle mats and splits older wood without much argument. If a core like that crossed your town, the roof aged years in twenty minutes.
The tornado tally — 14 in a day — reached past those two: Wisconsin confirmed three, with single touchdowns down in Alabama and Indiana. Most were brief, but brief still takes a barn roof off.
Here's the wrinkle on a day like this: wind damage and hail damage don't look alike, and they don't fail alike. Wind lifts and creases shingles — you can catch it from the yard if you know to read the edges and the ridge. Hail bruises from above and hides until the mat lets go months later. If you sat under that line, you're checking for both, not one.
For the crews, the gas money is in the Iowa–Illinois wind corridor and that Humboldt hail core — tight, documented, and fresh. The season's hail leaderboard lives on the Top States for Hail board. To see exactly where the line clipped your county, scroll the state-by-state table below and open your state.