This weekend is to rank among the summer’s most beautiful and most comfortable since early June. Today is likely to be the first Saturday in which the “official” high fails to reach 80° since June 10. And, the coolest inland lows tonight in the metro area—i.e. the Fox Valley, DeKalb, Morris, Kankakee and Valparaiso—may end up not far from the record low of 51° set only two years ago in 2004.
Two days of northeast winds have sent the oppressively humid air responsible for Thursday’s thundery downpours packing. The atmosphere, from which 2.10” of water could have been squeezed earlier this week, holds a quarter that amount (0.50”) Saturday, a development obvious in the complete absence of haze. Interestingly, the driest air of all resides above 6,000 feet where relative humidities are predicted at a bone-dry 13% or less. Some of that dry air sinks to the surface and moves inland Saturday afternoon once daytime heating takes hold.
--By Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Meteorologist
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
