Hazy skies in place, temperatures to warm ahead of next cold front

Couple of things we'll have to watch. One is the wildfire smoke as that will be hovering overhead during much of our Tuesday. Second is the potential for a few thunderstorms, some on the stronger side, Wednesday night into Thursday.
 

Starting with the wildfire smoke, forecast do show a good amount of it tracking in towards the midday hours today. Now, it doesn't seem there will be anything available to transfer this plume to the ground, which is good news for air quality purposes. It will just make our skies very hazy which we've come accustomed to over the past week or so. 

Underneath today's hazy skies, a westerly wind will continue to blow, pushing temperatures back in the upper 70s, close to the 80° mark. Great news for those attending Food Truck Tuesday this evening. 

As an area of high pressure pushes east, winds will change to the southwest for Wednesday. This will likely result in a warmer start to the day as well as a much warmer afternoon. Under partly cloudy skies, expect highs to peak in the upper 80s. 

This warm up comes to a halt however as our next cold front sinks down from the Upper Great Plains. Forecast models continue to show this boundary stalling over northern Illinois, leading to high chances for rain and question marks when it comes to afternoon highs. For the time being, expect afternoon highs to fluctuate from the upper 70s and low 80s Friday to the mid 70s for the weekend. Rain chances associated with this frontal boundary should lower by Sunday as the front itself sinks further away to the southeast.