With high pressure centered north of Lake Superior building into the western Great Lakes and low pressure intensifying in central Kansas, Chicago sits in the middle, and the barometric pressure squeeze is on! The cold front that passed through Chicago last night is now oriented east-west along a line from Lafayette, Indiana to Peoria, Illinois west through northern Missouri into the Kansas low. The cold front will probably dip further south as the low center begins to make its move northeast in the next 24 hours.
This afternoon strong northeast winds gusting 25 to 30 mph have held temperatures over a good portion of the close-in Chicago area in the 40s with only far western and sections to the south making it into the lower 50s. Far to the south, closer to the leading edge of cold air, Kankakee has managed to hit the 60-degree mark. A cloud deck running right along the lakefront from the city north to Milwaukee and beyond has cut out much of the sunlight and held temperatures at locations like Waukegan and Racine in the mid to upper 30s.
As low pressure slowly approaches from the west, easterly winds will gradually strengthen. By Friday they will build to frequent gusts in excess of 40 mph and higher. The Chicago National Weather Service Office has issued a Lakeshore Hazard Statement alerting to the possible development of potential waves well in excess of 10 feet right along the lakefront Friday. High-level clouds will gradually increase over southeast Wisconsin, northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana tonight, then thicken and lower Friday with rain expected to overrun the entire area by later Friday afternoon.
