Thunderstorm chances increase Friday morning

 

Our stretch of comfortably warm weather will soon come to an end as a more summer-like pattern is set to return heading into the weekend. This means temperatures will not only remain in the 80s through the weekend, but we'll soon feel the return of higher humidity.

For the rest of Thursday evening clouds will slowly increase but our skies will remain dry. A line of non-severe thunderstorms stretches from northern Wisconsin back southwest through Iowa and northwest Missouri and will slowly move east through the night. High pressure over the Great Lakes has kept quite a bit of dry air in place as moisture continues to build west of the Mississippi River. Eventually, that moisture will move east which will lead to those storms moving into northwest Illinois around daybreak Friday. While in an overall weakening trend can be expected, the scattered showers/storms will move across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin through late morning.

Friday afternoon will likely see some dry time as only an isolated threat for a storm or storm will be possible. Surface winds from the southwest will keep temperatures in the low 80s but push dew points into the 60s. This will make the afternoon feel quite a bit more humid than what it has the last several days.

The rain during the morning won't be evenly distributed across the region, leaving some to receive totals nearing a half an inch to three quarters of an inch while others may not get quite as much. The next chance for showers and thunderstorms will return late Friday evening from what develops to our west and northwest during the late afternoon and evening. The highest threat for strong to severe storms will remain west of the Mississippi River during that time, but the remnants of those storms could move in our direction Friday night posing at least an isolated risk for a strong/severe storm or two. Because of this northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin remain under a 'marginal risk' for an isolated strong storm or two.