Return to warmth and higher humidity ahead

The past three days have seen high temperatures across northeast Illinois fail to warm out of the 70s and today could be number four.
However, the strong Canadian high pressure air mass responsible for this cool down is slowly receding to the east. By this weekend the return of southerly flow should allow readings to once again approach the 90° mark. Warm humid conditions are then expected to persist into the middle of next week before computer models indicate the next cool off will occur.
Severe weather reports were few and far between Wednesday, but late in the afternoon Higgins, Oklahoma was hit with baseball-sized hail. Tropical Storm Katrina is slowly intensifying as it approaches the east-central coast of Florida, and latest forecasts have it reaching Hurricane strength just before making landfall later tonight. 10 to 15 inch rains could drench southern and central Florida.