Summer has officially arrived across the Sauk Valley with the Summer Solstice yesterday occurring during the early evening hours marking the beginning of warmer days ahead. It certainly hasn’t felt like the true first day of summer though since we have been experiencing highs in the 90s since May!
Today will feature less in the way of heat and humidity as a cold front has slipped to the south of the area. We’ll have plenty of sunshine and comfortable conditions with highs in the middle 80s. A much better day for outdoor activities!
Tonight the cold front begins its trek back northward as a warm front and will spawn a complex of showers and storms to the west of the area. This complex will move into the area during the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday bringing with it the threat of heavy rain and gusty winds. Lows in the 60s are expected.
Wednesday continues to be a day to monitor for some stronger storms in or near the area as the warm front continues to progress northward. If we can manage to move the storms in the morning out quickly and break into some sunshine, scattered severe storms remain possible in the afternoon hours. Our area has been upgraded to a moderate risk via the Storm Prediction Center. All hazards are possible with these storms including large hail, damaging winds, flash flooding, and tornadoes. Specific threats will be better clarified in the next 12 to 18 hours or so. Tim will have another update early this afternoon once fresh model data and information from the Storm Prediction Center is available.
After Wednesday night’s storms things will cool off again with temperatures returning to the middle 80s and plenty of sunshine to finish off the weak. Next chance of rainfall arrives on Saturday. Hopefully we can manage to get the fireworks display in at Summer Splash without any issues!
