Friday, September 27, 2024

Lingering impacts from Helene into the weekend

 The wide precipitation field off the remnants of Hurricane Helene continue into late Friday evening across the Ohio River Valley and into the Southeast. This comes as the remnant tropical cyclone gets swept into an upper level low now centered near Kentucky. Drier air to the North and West has kept us dry in the Stateline and will continue to do so for many through the weekend.

One impact from Helene was our breezy winds. This came as a strong pressure gradient between the high pressure to our North and the strong remnant low pressure to the South. Northeast winds cycled around the low pressure, producing gusts upwards of 50-60 mph across portions of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky Friday afternoon. Locally, we only saw peak wind gusts reach just above 30 mph.

Cloud cover will remain in place through the night as the spiraling moisture around the low pressure to the South fights with dry air from the high pressure to our North. This will only allow temperatures to drop to around 60° overnight.

A narrow band of showers may develop Southeast of Rockford Saturday morning into the afternoon, but highest chances for any rain to fall will remain closer to a line from Chicago down to Peoria. A continued dry forecast can be expected Northwest of Rockford.

Winds will ease a bit over Saturday and Sunday, with gusts down to 20-25 mph. This will also come with a slight decrease in cloud cover, with some seeing more sunshine each day following. Temperatures will remain above average, with highs in the upper 70s and lows in the upper 50s. Next week, we will see a brief cool down with a strong cold front Tuesday morning leading to highs in the 60s and 70s Tuesday and Wednesday. But the cool down will not last long as highs are back into the mid and upper 70s by the end of the week.

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