A very warm and toasty Labor Day will carry over to today as temperatures again soar to near 90 degrees this afternoon with plenty of humidity. Heat index values will be in the middle 90s with partly sunny skies. We’ll be increasing chances for showers and thunderstorms into Wednesday and a few of those could be severe with heavy rainfall. Find out when the temperatures will be cooling off in your latest forecast. Have a great Tuesday!
The summer heat has returned across the Sauk Valley even though meteorological summer started on the first of the month. That doesn’t mean we are quite done with the heat and humidity though as temperatures can still reach into the 90s even through October. With the added humidity heat index values will be on the rise and nearing the middle 90s by this afternoon and even higher values expected Wednesday as highs should surpass 90 depending on when the storms can arrive.
All of this hot and humid air is streaming ahead of a cold front that has been sitting in the plains for the last several days. The remnants of Hermine continue to move slightly to the west and this is holding up the weather pattern from progressing much to the east for now, so showers and thunderstorms will be delayed until Wednesday with much of this afternoon looking dry.
Once the front arrives during the afternoon on Wednesday we will have the potential to see some strong to severe storms during the afternoon hours if we can manage to destabilize the atmosphere enough. All hazards of severe weather are possible late Wednesday afternoon through Wednesday evening including large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes. We’ll keep tabs on the situation and should severe storms threaten the area we’ll have extensive coverage online via our Facebook platform. Right now the storm prediction center has the area in a Marginal Risk but this may change in the next 24 hours depending on how ingredients come together. Due to all of the moisture pooling across the region heavy rainfall will also be possible.
Beyond Wednesday it appears we will get a break not only from the storms but from the hot temperatures as well with highs back in the 80s under partly cloudy skies. Friday could see an additional round or strong storms and heavy rain before we really cool temperatures back down into the 70s for next weekend.
