Chicago-bound warmth, humidity behind storms

Gargantuan thunderstorms -- some 66,000 feet tall -- unleashed swarms of tornadoes
on the western Plains for a second consecutive evening Friday. By nightfall, NOAA's
Storm Prediction Center had tallied nearly three dozen reports of touchdowns. At one
point, a large tornado was reported by storm chasers on the ground just 9 miles
southwest of Greensburg, Kan. -- a community demolished by a twister last May.
Northbound hot air -- which sent readings in Texas soaring to 107 degrees at Laredo,
102 at McAllen, and 100 at Midland and Austin -- energized the storm outbreak, and is
to send Midwest temperatures surging Sunday. If thunderstorms remain north and west
of Chicago on Sunday, the year's highest temperature is within reach -- and the warmth
is to extend into Memorial Day, though powerful thunderstorms may erupt in the
afternoon and evening.
MAY'S CHILLY REPUTATION GROWS
Friday marked the 9th time this month Chicago failed to reach 60 degrees. The
57-degree high was the coolest for a May 23 in 21 years and was in stark contrast to
the 89-degree high a year earlier. The month is now about 8 degrees below a year ago.
Only four Mays since 1980 have been cooler.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune