A Rainy Start and Tropical Storm Harvey

It's not exactly the best way to start a Monday; dense fog and light rain showers.  Luckily, visibilities have become more manageable, with Rockford still being at around 4 miles visibility.  Within an hour, those visibilities will be back to normal, but unfortunately the rain will remain.  Isolated rain showers will stay in play the entire day, with storm chances in the afternoon.  The storm chances will be for our eastern counties starting at around 1pm, but everywhere else will see the isolated showers.

The cold front, which will develop the thunderstorms over our eastern counties this afternoon, will clear out around 7pm, and at that time those isolated rain showers should die down.  We'll stay clear going through the overnight as we'll have cool, dry inflow from the north, bringing temperatures into the upper 50's.  That cooler inflow won't affect temperatures a whole lot tomorrow, but it'll clear our skies and allow to have lots of sunshine!  This will affect our temperatures, bringing them into the upper 70's.  Even more sunshine will be seen Wednesday when we'll have a more high pressure influence over our area, and this will warm our temperatures even more into the low 80's.

The high pressure system will push in more cool air on Thursday and Friday, cooling our temperatures back into the mid 70's, but we still hang on to the sunshine.  Unfortunately, the nice weather doesn't last forever as warm, humid inflow will channel into our area for the weekend.  We'll also have a low pressure system move in, and both of these factors will also for thunderstorm development both Saturday and Sunday.

Tropical Storm Harvey Update:
Tropical Storm Harvey's winds have died down quite a bit since yesterday, now down to around 40mph, which is only a couple miles per hour away from being downgraded to a Tropical Depression.  However, the system is nowhere near done with the Texas Coastline, as moisture continues flowing onto the land, generating more heavy rain bands.

Over 20" has fallen so far in a few locations, with 20 more inches expected to fall during the week.  Total accumulations in some areas, from when Harvey moved in to when it dies, will add up to around 50".  That's 4 feet of rain!!  Along with the rain, 30 tornadoes have been reported so far in Harvey, and a few tornado reports are already showing up over in Louisiana, where the heavy rain bands have expanded to.  The coastline has gotten a lot of everything; heavy rain, tornadoes, and very strong winds.

Tropical Storm Harvey is expected to push towards northeast Texas, where it's expected to die out this weekend.

Tropical Storm Harvey Continues to Move Slowly and Flood Many

Tropical Storm Harvey continues to bring copious amounts of rain to eastern Texas.  Original forecasts called for 20 to 30 inches of rain, and now the National Hurricane Center is saying the storm could drop up to 50 inches in some areas before everything is over. 

One of the key problems is that Harvey is in an area of very light steering winds aloft and stuck between 2 high pressure systems.  Because of that situation, Harvey will continue to meander in the east Texas region, currently only moving at 2 miles per hour. The above prediction shows that by Friday, Harvey is expected to finally exit Texas and move into southern Arkansas.  By the time this storm is over, it will certainly go down in history as one of the worst flooding events ever.  

A Rainy Weekend and Tropical Storm Harvey Update

Not exactly the way we wanted to start the weekend with all the rain, and unfortunately the rain will linger with us through the evening.  However, as we go into the late-night hours, we'll start to see a few breaks in the rain.  We'll stay mostly cloudy during the overnight, even with the breaks in the rain, and temperatures will be a little warmer in the low to mid 60's.  More rain will move in tomorrow morning though, as a cold front will approach our area.

The front will move in around 1pm, where we'll start to see a few thunderstorms develop out in our western counties.  The front won't move a whole lot during the afternoon, which will keep the storms lingering in a few areas.  The front will slowly track eastward during the evening, moving halfway through the Stateline by around 10pm.  At this point, thunderstorm development will be hindered since it'll be cooler overall, so the front won't have much to work with.  However, we may see a little bit of rain during the overnight. 

The front will towards our eastern counties around 1pm on Monday, by which temperatures will be warm enough to trigger some storm development along the front, but these storms would be confined to our eastern counties during Monday afternoon.  The front will clear out around 7pm Monday evening, after which we'll stay dry for the most of the week before more rain moves in Friday night for the weekend.

Temperatures will stay in the upper 70's to start the week, even after the cold front moves out as there will be a good amount of sunshine.  We'll dip to the mid 70's for Thursday and Friday, before warming up a little more for next weekend, but the warmth and moisture will help fuel showers and thunderstorms.

Tropical Storm Harvey Update:
Harvey is now a Tropical Storm as winds have gone down to 65 mph.  However, the storm is nowhere near done with the Texas Coastline, as multiple storm surge warnings and flood warnings are still in place in many areas.  There have also been multiple tornado warnings, and the tornado warnings keep climbing.  As of this writing, there's been 16 total tornado reports since yesterday evening, some of which were in Houston and Galveston.

Heavy rainfall is also still occurring, with many locations still expected to see over 20" of rain after the storm dies down, and a few isolated locations could very well see up to 40" inches of rain.  The storm is still expected to die down by the middle of next week.

Hurricane Harvey and It's Affects On Us

Overall a fairly nice evening across the Stateline, with temperatures in the upper 60's to low 70's with partly cloudy skies.  A couple of isolated rain showers down to the south, but these will stay down south, keeping the Stillman Valley football game nice and dry.  A few more showers are moving in from the northwest, but these should fizzle out before reaching our area.  We'll stay partly cloudy for the overnight, where we'll cool down to the low to mid 50°s.  More than likely there won't be any locations that hit the upper 40°s.

Some moisture inflow from Hurricane Harvey will move into our area this weekend, giving us rain and storm chances.  We'll go into Saturday afternoon mostly cloudy with a slight chance for rain, but the better chance for rain shows up when the warm front will move in a little closer around 7pm.  The rain will linger during the overnight, with a cold front expected to move through Sunday afternoon.  This will bring us some thunderstorms, a couple of which may produce a few strong wind gusts.  The cold front moves out around 10pm, after which we're looking to stay fairly dry going into the work week.

Temperatures will be in the upper 70's during the weekend, and then cool down to the mid 70's during the work week after the cold front moves out Sunday night.  We're not expected to hit the low 80's across the Stateline again until the middle of next week.

Hurricane Harvey Update:
Harvey has now been upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane as wind speeds have reached 130mph.  It's expected to make landfall during the overnight tonight, and will end up bringing upwards of 35 inches of rain around the Corpus Christi area with storm surges upwards of 12 feet along the Texas Gulf Coast.  The hurricane will stall on land during the weekend, and is not expected to die down until the middle of next week

Major Hurricane Forecast to Impact Texas Gulf Coast

Lift-threatening flooding and high storm surge are possible along the Gulf coast of Texas over the next several days as now Hurricane Harvey, a Category One hurricane, spins in the Gulf.  The strength of Harvey hasn't increased too much Thursday afternoon, but forecasts from the National Hurricane Center have Harvey strengthening to a major hurricane, Category Three, by Friday.


Recent aircraft data show the central pressure of Harvey has dropped to 974 mb, but winds within the storm haven't changed much from earlier in the day.  Maximum sustained winds are 85 mph and the storm is moving northwest at 10 mph.

Hurricane Harvey is expected to make landfall near Corpus Christi either late Friday or early Saturday morning.  High pressure over the eastern Gulf of Mexico is the driving force for Harvey, but blocking high pressure over the western United States will cause Harvey to slow down, and possibly move back out over the Gulf this weekend.  Either way, a significant amount of rainfall is expected to occur over the next 5-7 days.  Rainfall totals over two feet could be recorded in some places.  Evacuations have already been ordered for coastal cities as residents board up their homes and travel further inland.


Click here for all the latest on Hurricane Harvey

Forecast for Local Friday Night Football Games

The first Friday night football games start tomorrow and the forecast should cooperate for most.  Skies may be a little cloudy at times, but any rain should hold off until late in the weekend.  You may want to bring a jacket, though.  Temperatures at the start of the varsity game will be in the upper 60's, to near 70 degrees.


Here's the full forecast for all the local high schools for Friday night:

Game of the week:
North Boone at Stillman Valley: Partly cloudy - Temperature: 69 degrees


NIC 10:
Belvidere at East (played at Guilford): Mostly cloudy - Temperature: 71 degrees
Boylan at Belvidere North: Partly cloudy- Temperature: 70 degrees
Auburn at Freeport: Mostly cloudy - Temperature: 66 degrees
Harlem at Jefferson (played at Auburn): Mostly cloudy - Temperature: 68 degrees
Guilford at Hononegah: Mostly cloudy - Temperature: 70 degrees


BIG NORTH CONFERENCE:
Burlington Central at Byron: Mostly cloudy - Temperature: 69 degrees
Lutheran at Genoa-Kingston: Partly cloudy - Temperature: 69 degrees
Harvard at Oregon: Partly cloudy - Temperature: 70 degrees
Rockford Christian at Rock Falls: Partly cloudy - Temperature: 71 degrees
Winnebago at Marengo: Partly cloudy - Temperature: 70 degrees
Dixon at Mendota: Mostly cloudy - Temperature: 69 degrees


NORTHWEST UPSTATE ILLINI CONFERENCE:
Galena at Dakota: Partly cloudy - Temperature: 71 degrees
Eastland-Pearl City at East Dubuque: Mostly cloudy - Temperature: 68 degrees
Forreston at Durand-Pecatonica (in Pecatonica): Partly cloudy - Temperature: 70 degrees
Milledgeville at Amboy: Mostly cloudy - Temperature: 71 degrees
West Carroll at Lena-Winslow: Mostly cloudy - Temperature: 70 degrees
Aston Franklin Center at River Ridge (in Hanover): Partly cloudy - Temperature: 73 degrees
Kirkland Hiawatha at Freeport Aquin: Mostly cloudy - Temperature: 67 degrees
Orangeville at Polo: Partly cloudy - Temperature: 68 degrees
Stockton at Warren: Partly cloudy - Temperature: 69 degrees


OTHER GAMES:
Varna Midland at South Beloit: Mostly cloudy - Temperature: 70 degrees
Chicago Corlis at Rochelle: Partly cloudy - Temperature 71 degrees
Sterling at Sycamore: Partly cloudy - Temperature 71 degrees

Football Weather and When to Expect Some Rain

We had a weak disturbance off to the east, which increased our cloud cover early this morning.  That has since moved out, and now we're getting more clear skies across the Stateline area.  Clouds will build up a little bit going into the afternoon, with scattered cloud cover, but it won't be overcast.  Highs will only be in the mid 70's as we have cool air flowing in from the north.  The skies will completely clear for the overnight, where we'll cool down to the upper 40's to low 50's. 

Tomorrow will be similar to today, except that we'll see more sunshine in the afternoon. We'll have great weather for the high school football games; partly cloudy with temperatures around 70°.  A low pressure system will approach from the west for the weekend, and will increase our cloud cover going into the overnight.  However, no rain is expected.

That low pressure system will move into our area for the weekend, bringing our temperatures into the upper 70's.  However, that'll also increase our chances for showers and thunderstorms.  Showers are likely during the late-night hours of Saturday, with thunderstorms expected Sunday late afternoon.  The low will bring a cold front through during the evening, after which we'll hang on to some cloud cover going into the work week, with temperatures staying in the upper 70°s.