Afternoon Update

1:00pm Update:  A Tornado Watch may be needed later this afternoon as skies continue to clear ahead of the approaching cold front and upper level trough. 


Noon Update:  Looking at the current visible satellite trends this morning and we're still under a fairly decent amount of cloud cover.  We aren't clearing as much as previous thought.  With that said...the moderate risk for severe weather has been shifted to the south a little but we are still fully in the slight risk.  We are beginning to see some clearing out to the west in southern Iowa but question remains just how quickly northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin will begin to clear.  Other factors are still in place as far as the timing of the cold front and upper level disturbance moving through and if we can clear out enough before the front moves through our severe weather risk will remain with hail, damaging winds and an isolated tornado can't be ruled out.  We still do have lots of instability to work with so any bit of clearing will lead to storms later today! Chief Meteorologist Ty Shesky will have all the latest information for you later this afternoon.