Heat, humidity charging back after brief pullback
A gush of cooler air, generated by downpours out of powerful Wisconsin
thunderstorms, raced into the city on 35 m.p.h. gusts late Wednesday, offering
Chicagoans a burst of heat relief. The storms spent the day traveling southeast across
the Badger State, unleashing 70 m.p.h. winds gusts at Sheboygan and more than 4
inches of rain near La Crosse, before swiping extreme northeast Illinois. At one point,
clouds within the storm cluster towered to more than 52,000 feet. The outflow's arrival
sent Chicago temperatures tumbling from the mid-80s to the upper 60s. The plunge
followed a second day of 90s -- including 94 degrees at Alsip and 93 at Lincolnshire.
O'Hare and Midway Airports recorded the third 90-degree readings of 2008 topping out
at 90 and 91.
Combined with muggy, Gulf Coast-level 70-degree dewpoints, heat indexes peaked at
97 degrees on the South Side and 96 degrees at O'Hare -- the year's highest.
WORRISOME ATMOSPHERIC COMBO COULD IGNITE BIG RAINS THIS WEEKEND
Winds converging along a southward sagging cold front in an atmosphere saturated
with more than 2 inches of evaporated moisture could set the stage for clusters of
downpour-generating t-storms this weekend in parts of the Midwest.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune