Things are Heating Up

A warm front stretches from a low located near Fargo, North Dakota toward the southeast across south central Minnesota, through the Quad Cities to near Paducah, Kentucky.  The front will move through the Rockford area by mid afternoon.  High pressure in the mid levels will cap the atmosphere so that no thunderstorms will develop as the front pushes on through.  The wind will pick up, and become gusty from the south to 30 mph, and it will get hot with a late afternoon high close to 90 degrees.  The Stateline will be in the warm sector overnight.  It will be warm and humid with the ovenight temperature failing to drop below 70 degrees.  With a cool front steadily advancing from the northwest, there could be some thunderstorm development after midnight.  The cool front is expected to enter extreme northwestern Illinois by 6 am on Saturday morning.  There is a slight chance of severe thunderstorms on Saturday southeast of a line from Gurnee in Lake County to New Milford (just south of Rockford), to Savanna on the Mississippi River.  If this forecast verifies, that will put Rockford just to the north of the severe activity which could include damaging wind and large hail.  The timing for severe thundestorms will be from late morning through the early afternoon.  By evening the cool front will settle southward nearly to the St. Louis, Missouri area.  There could be some straggling precipitaion during the early evening to the south of Rockford.  The night will be partly cloudy and cooler with a low in the low 60's.  Sunday looks like it will be a very nice day with drier air in place,  mostly sunny skies, and afternoon temperatures reaching the low 80's.