After making landfall at Pensacola, Fla., Sunday afternoon with winds between 115 to 120 m.p.h., Hurricane Dennis quickly weakened as it moved inland. By noon today the remnant low center is expected to be in northern Mississippi and headed for the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers Tuesday. A broad area of heavy rain is forecast to accompany and precede the low center. With the jet stream far to the north in Canada, upper-level steering winds are very light, enabling the low to meander through southern Illinois into Indiana—perhaps dumping copious rains along its path. Preliminary estimates call for as much as 8 to 10 inches of rain in that area by Thursday.
The longer this pattern takes to shift the low east, the better the chance significant rain will reach northern Illinois, where interaction with an approaching cool front could trigger a prolonged period of showers and thunderstorms in the Chicago area.
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
