The Brief
- Wildfire smoke will gradually clear Monday afternoon and evening.
- Strong to severe storms could bring damaging winds, hail and heavy rain tonight.
- Cooler, sunny weather returns by midweek before temperatures climb again this weekend.
CHICAGO – Much of the chatter this morning was about the lingering wildfire smoke in the area. Thankfully, conditions were nowhere near as bad as last week, and the smoke is expected to clear through the afternoon and evening.
Severe storms, flooding threaten Chicago
It’s going to be a warmer day today versus Sunday with highs in the mid to upper 80s. The wind picks up from the southwest, too, around 10-20 mph.
The bigger focus now is on the threat of severe weather later this evening and into tonight. We are tracking an incoming feature that could lead to some rather rambunctious activity after sunset tonight. The top concerns would be damaging wind gusts and hail. Those wind gusts could cause issues with power if trees or lines get knocked down. Rotation cannot completely be ruled out either, but the overall odds for tornadoes in our area appear lower — but not zero!
I am more concerned about potential flooding in some cases. We’ve gone 14 straight days with no measurable rain officially in Chicago. You would think the ground is ready to soak things up, but with the recent heat and sunshine, that ground is dry and hard. Dumping buckets of rain on that dry ground causes it to actually pool, not get soaked up right away. So again, don’t be surprised by localized high water in spots. The rainfall rates may be extremely high at times tonight.…