Heat and humidity to follow chilly holiday weekend

Posted on: May 25th, 2013 8:56 PM by Steve Kahn

 

 

The remainder of the Memorial day weekend looks to be a cool and damp as  afternoon temperatures hold in the 60s both Sunday and Monday. Clouds will dominate Sunday as morning  sprinkles blossom into showers and thunderstorms  on Sunday especially in areas south and west of the city. The showers and thunderstorms will become more widespread over the entire area Sunday night and Monday. With an ample supply of gulf moisture, rainfall totals could be substantial as downpours develop.

 

Heat and humidity follow

 

Thunderstorms should depart early Tuesday  as a warm front passes. Gusty south-southwest winds  deliver  hot and humid air that should send temperatures surging into the middle 80s Tuesday and then into the lower 90s for an extended Wednesday through Friday run. Showers and thunderstorms should return by Friday and Saturday as a cold front approaches, raising the specter for some gusty storms accompanied by heavy rainfall.

May 25, 1992: Chicago’s latest freeze; start of a very cool summer

Posted on: May 25th, 2013 8:57 PM by Steve Kahn

 

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ASK TOM: Man-made land features aid weather forecasts

Posted on: May 25th, 2013 8:01 PM by CWC Staff

 

Dear Tom,
I know a man-made land feature like a highway can’t affect the weather. What conditions lead to the boundaries of fronts seemingly setting up along something like Interstate 80, or do you just use them as a handy reference?
— J. Wadsworth, Oak Park
Dear J.,
Chicago forecasts often use well-known map features like highways to describe where weather is expected to occur because they do provide easy references. Thunderstorms first reach the I-39 corridor as they approach the Chicago area, or the snow shield from a winter storm will affect only portions of the area south of I-80. East-west frontal boundaries often stall out along the I-80 corridor — not because of the interstate but because the highway coincides with the southern end of Lake Michigan, a feature that does affect the weather.

Stairway to heaven

Posted on: May 25th, 2013 5:48 PM by Steve Kahn No Comments

 

Thanks to Mike Bagniewski for passing along this interesting photo taken by Rich Wettstein.

 

Photo by Rich Wettstein

Photo by Rich Wettstein

View from a bridge

Posted on: May 25th, 2013 5:39 PM by Steve Kahn No Comments

 

Thanks to Cathy Fowler from Marseilles for this great shot taken from the Veterans Warm Memorial Bridge near Ottawa.

Photo by Cathy Fowler

Photo by Cathy Fowler

Chicago area headed for its coolest Memorial Day weekend in a dozen years; April-level Saturday/Sunday temps to run 10 to 16-degrees below normal!

Posted on: May 25th, 2013 12:41 AM by Tom Skilling No Comments

 

Buckle up!  Chicago temperatures over the coming week are promising area residents quite a ride. From the unseasonable (and ill-timed) April-level chill with which the Memorial Day weekend opens Saturday and Sunday, to the heat of summer—likely to ride howling southerly winds into the area from Tuesday afternoon next week forward—area residents are in for what amounts to a ride through the temperatures of multiple seasons.

 

 

Clusters of showers and thunderstorms are to erupt along and to the north of the sharp thermal boundary between the two widely varied air masses.  Their trek across the Midwest makes it likely they will only brush areas from Chicago north while exposing far west and south suburbs to more significant rain tallies.

 

 

A corridor extending from Iowa east/southeastward into central Illinois and Indiana is likely to be on the receiving end of impressive rainfalls in the 1 to 4” range while far lighter amounts are to occur to the north.

 

 

A larger swath of the Chicago area gets in on precipitation later in the weekend as a northward shift in the well-defined boundary between unseasonably warm air to the south and unusually chilly air to the north takes place. Wider-coverage, frequently thundery clusters of storms may well reach Chicago and areas north later Sunday night into Monday (Memorial Day).  And additional thunderstorm-clusters are likely Monday night into Tuesday morning before shifting north, allowing rains to scatter and thin out here.

 

 

The 50s Thursday and Friday produced the coolest May 23-24 period in 26 years

 

 

Chicago’s official highs of 54 Thursday and 57 Friday marked the first time in 3 weeks readings that cool have occurred.  It’s the chilliest set of Mar 23 and 24 temperatures in 26 years.

 

 

Lakeshore communities shivered Friday through highs limited to the 40s

 

 

Though winds were a fraction of the near 50 mph peak velocities observed on Thursday, Friday afternoon’s east/northeasterly flow off Lake Michigan produced quite a chill in lakeshore areas.

 

 

Temperatures peaked no higher than the 40s at Kenilworth (48); Wilmette (48), Highland Park (48), Glencoe (48) and Northfield (49).

 

 

Hottest weather of 2013 to sweep in with warm front’s passage early Tuesday; series of 90-degree highs to follow mid and late week

 

 

Chicago’s weather is to undergo a sea change next week.  From Monday’s 69-degree Memorial Day high—a radical shift from the 95-degree reading which occurred on the holiday a year ago—temperatures are to surge into the mid 80s Tuesday and low 90s from Wednesday through Friday if current forecast trends hold up.  Temperatures at those levels would be the highest to date in 2013.

A big warm-up to follow chilly, damp holiday weekend

Posted on: May 24th, 2013 10:18 PM by Jennifer Kohnke No Comments

 

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Memorial Day weekend the chilliest in 12 years

Posted on: May 24th, 2013 10:52 PM by Steve Kahn No Comments

 

Memorial Day weekend typically marks the start of the summer season, but this year there will be a chill in the air. High temperatures are forecast to reach only early April-level highs in the upper 50s on Saturday and 60s on Sunday and Monday. Those temperatures will make it the city's coolest Memorial Day weekend since 2001. Not only will it be cool, but sprinkles and scattered light showers on Saturday and Sunday morning should build to more numerous showers and thunderstorms Sunday afternoon and Memorial Day, putting a further damper on outdoor activities.

 

An abrupt shift in the weather pattern will send heat and humidity into the area later next week, boosting temperatures to the lower 90s with a continuing threat of showers and thunderstorms.

Chicago skyline on a chilly May day

Posted on: May 24th, 2013 10:23 PM by Steve Kahn No Comments

 

Thanks to Daniel Buechele for sending along this shot of the city, taken looking east from the Marriott Hotel.

 

Photo by Daniel Buechele

Photo by Daniel Buechele

ASK TOM WHY: Do other countries have tornadoes?

Posted on: May 24th, 2013 6:52 PM by CWC Staff No Comments

 

Dear Tom,

 

Do other countries have tornadoes? We never hear of others having a catastrophe like Oklahoma's.

— Marlene Jiracek, Willowbrook, and Jeffrey Kozinski, Mokena

 
Dear Marlene and Jeff,

 

The U.S. records about 75 percent of the world's tornadoes, a result of our nation's unique central geography that puts polar, tropical and desert air masses on a collision course, a textbook environment for tornado formation. However, twisters can occur anywhere in the world (except for the polar regions). Tornado expert Tom Grazulis has documented twisters in more than 40 nations, including Canada, Japan, Australia, Western Europe, South Africa, Russia, Argentina and Bangladesh. Most experts believe that the number of tornadoes outside of the U.S. is likely underreported because of poor documentation.