Thursday afternoon weather update

The heavy rain that fell south of Rockford this morning has now moved east into Michigan and Ohio.  Skies will stay cloudy going into the afternoon across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin with a fairly strong east wind keeping a stable air mass in place.  Further south, strong to severe thunderstorms have once again developed in central and southern Missouri ahead of low pressure and along a warm front.  That warm front will remain south in central Missouri and Illinois through the majority of the afternoon keeping the greatest threat for any thunderstorm activity to the south.

As low pressure slides northeast into southern Iowa later this evening, the storm threat will track a little further north getting close to Whiteside, Lee and DeKalb counties.  Additional thunderstorms are possible with some containing hail and gusty winds for areas mainly south of the Rockford Metro, but with us remaining on the 'cooler' side of the front we won't quite tap into the unstable air mass.  Still, just like this morning any storms that do develop will be good rain producers as moisture lifts overtop the cooler air at the surface.

Low pressure will then move near Dubuque, IA through the overnight with a cold front swinging through after 11pm.  The threat for storms will shift south of Chicago into the overnight before moving into Indiana by Friday morning.