Unfortunately, Tuesday's Forecast Turned Out to Be Correct

A major damaging wind event Tuesday:

The Forecast

Note it says, "prepare for power failures and downed trees" and there is an excellent correlation (well done, NWS SPC!) between the red area and the most severe winds (map below). 

Squall Line at 10:45pm EDT

Conditions as of Late Evening

The squall line has brought a huge number of power failures to the region, including in the cities of Chicago and Milwaukee. There are about 995,000 people without power and it will take days to fully restore. 

Reports of wind damage (blue) and one tornado report (red)

The problem is that heat indices tomorrow and Thursday in that area will be around 100° which may cause heat strokes and serious injury.

Hail Swaths

For agriculture and other interests, here is a map of hail swaths across the Midwest. 

There were two storms with extreme hail in Kansas. 

The western storm produced baseball-sized hail and 
wind gusts that were clocked to 77 mph

This was an example of how weather science can be used to benefit society and make our lives better by mitigating the effects of extreme weather.