Wednesday Afternoon Weather Update

8:26pm Update: Severe storm chances (plus any rain, for that matter) are done for the night. Cooler temps move in starting tomorrow.

5:55pm Update: As a cold front continues to push through the Stateline, the chances of seeing any severe weather this evening is starting to dwindle. As of 4:30pm, the cold front we've been keeping an eye on was pushing through Galena. Radar just before 6pm shows no activity in the area

The current time frame for any storm development will be between now and 8pm (just after sunset). At that point, if we haven't seen any storms, we probably won't.

If storms do develop, hail and wind will be the main concerns, with just an isolated chance of a tornado.

4:15pm Update: Areas of northern Illinois are currently being monitored for a possible severe thunderstorm watch.  There is roughly a 40% chance one may be issued within the next couple of hours.  Despite storms Wednesday morning the atmosphere has become a little more unstable with the sunshine.  If storms do form conditions would become favorable for hail and wind.  Storms would generally remain isolated and there may be a few that try to get going within the next hour or two.


Skies have cleared significantly behind the thunderstorms from this morning and this will continue to allow the atmosphere to destabilize ahead of a cold front currently in central Iowa.  The thunderstorms from this morning have left a few outflow boundaries across Illinois and those could potentially interact with the approaching cold front later this afternoon and evening. 

Strong surface heating combined with moisture returning into northern Illinois will increase atmospheric instability by 5pm and likely allow storm development in Wisconsin and Illinois.  Storms capable of large hail, damaging winds and isolated tornadoes remain possible through the evening.  Conditions will be monitored to see where exactly clouds begin to build this afternoon because that will give us a better idea of where storms will initially develop.