The last thing Midwesterners want to hear is that more rain and more severe
thunderstorms are on the way. For them, the forecasts contain both good news and bad
news. A cold frontal boundary, the transition zone between cool air to the west and hot
air to the east -- and a fertile breeding ground for t-storms -- stretches from
Oklahoma to Wisconsin. It's been there for three days, and so have the storms. The
frontal zone is finally shifting southeast and its associated storms will also be shifting
southeast.
Severe storms continue to be a threat today, especially south and east of Chicago, but
excessive rainfall and unprecedented flooding are now affecting far more people. Rains
will be diminishing from west to east across Iowa, Wisconsin and northern Illinois
today (the good news), but Indiana, southern Illinois and Michigan are next in line for
the rains (the bad news). Those areas, too, desperately want dry weather.
CHICAGO'S 90-DEGREE SEASON BEGINS
It's two weeks late, but Chicago logged its first 90-degree day of the season on
Thursday: 91 degrees. On average, that first occurrence lands on May 29. For those who
are counting, the city's annual tally of 90-degree days is 24 at Midway Airport and 11
days in (lake-cooled) downtown Chicago.
--By Richard Koeneman, WGN Weather Center Meteorologist
