Borne in by gusty southerly winds strong enough to overcome the cooling influence of Lake Michigan, warm air surging across Chicagoland today will send afternoon temperatures well into the upper 80s.
This is the ground-level effect of a powerful jet stream whose 90-m.p.h. winds (at an elevation of 45,000 feet) are blasting in a corridor from Oklahoma to Lake Superior. Chicago's expected high temperature in the upper 80s puts the thermometer within shooting distance of the record high for the date, 91 degrees, registered 116 years ago (1891). The amount of temperature-lowering daytime cloudiness is an important consideration. Gathering afternoon clouds may cap area temperatures in the mid 80s, whereas a sunny afternoon would permit a run at the day's record.
Powerful thunderstorms that rattled across the Northern Plains late Sunday will develop again today, and remnants of those storms arrive here by Tuesday.
--By Richard Koeneman, WGN Weather Center Meteorologist
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
