Mother's Day weather update

Good evening and Happy Mother's Day!

Even though it was a cloudy and cool Mother's Day, most of it remained dry.  Yes, we did have a few showers move through this morning, but the afternoon hours dried out.

As we head into the evening and overnight, there does remain the potential for thunderstorms but the severe potential looks fairly low.  A line of thunderstorms in Iowa and Central Illinois have been slowly pulling north and northeast over the past several hours.  Earlier Sunday afternoon, there were several severe thunderstorm warnings in Missouri, but as the line has pulled away from its moisture and instability source, we've seen these thunderstorms slowly begin to weaken. 

Nevertheless, as the warm front slowly lifts north and the low level jet increases, we'll likely see these thunderstorms either redevelop, or continue through the overnight as they lift into Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin.  The severe potential remains low, but some stronger wind gusts and heavier downpours could accompany the stronger storms.

A warm front divided much of Northern Illinois with areas south of I-80 warming into the 70's and 80's and becoming very unstable.  North of that warm front, an east wind and cloud cover kept the air mass very stable making it difficult for thunderstorms, but also making it difficult to warm much beyond the 50's.

That front, while it's slowly been lifting north, is expected to pull further north into Northern Illinois by dawn on Monday.  Dew points will briefly rise into the upper 50's, touching close to 60 degrees which may be just enough to allow additional thunderstorms to redevelop with the passage of the cold front mid-morning Monday.  Behind the front, winds will increase from the southwest and west, gusting close to 30 mph for the afternoon.