ILLINOIS—Just when we thought the weather was stabilizing and looking a little more like summer, we’ve got an event brewing that’s a LOT like summer…in the Midwest, anyway.
Here’s information from The Weather Channel about what’s headed our way:
Wednesday, severe thunderstorms will ignite along a strong warm front and low pressure system from eastern Iowa, northern/central Illinois and southern Wisconsin into Indiana, southern Lower Michigan and Ohio. This could affect the Wednesday afternoon/evening commute in Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit and possibly Cleveland. Damaging winds, large hail, some tornadoes, and local flash flooding from brief heavy rainfall are all threats.
Wednesday night, a cluster of severe thunderstorms, possibly in the form of a squall line with damaging straight-line winds, will sweep through this region as far east as western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. Cities in this late threat include Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Columbus, Ohio.
It’s possible, though by no means certain, that thunderstorms Wednesday night could congeal into a long-lived squall line called a “derecho” with a more widespread damaging wind threat in this region.
While TWC usually ignores us down here in southern Illinois (unless something devastating happens), this map shows that we’re in for it too, in our Central coverage area (deep southeastern Illinois—Pope, Pulaski, and points south) might escape what’s coming:
This one has a little different view than the the one on TWC, indicating that Gallatin and Hardin might be in the peripheral path. Nevertheless, keep an eye out. Here’s a link that explains what a derecho is.
If our readership counties are adversely affected, we’ll be reporting…keep checking back frequently.