Two brutally hot air masses, each deadly and record-breakers, shift east in the next week on two continents. It’s a move with profound implications on North American and European weather. Chicago stands to see a new round of 90s later this week while the deadly dome of hot air which has baked west and central Europe for more than a week (and is likely to grow still hotter Tuesday/Wednesday) is to yield to much cooler air off the Atlantic Ocean beyond mid-week. By this weekend, the intensely hot air will have shifted into far eastern Europe and western Russia. Locally, Summer 2006 boasts a 0.5-degree surplus in Chicago, averaging 71.2 (degrees) since June 1 versus the 70.7 (degrees) historic benchmark for the period. That places it among the warmest 40% of Chicago summers of the past 136 years (53 summers have been warmer; 82 have been cooler). Cumulative rainfall looks impressive over the next two weeks as a result of the new pattern. A series of thunderstorms is likely to generate 3″+ totals in the next two weeks across much of the Chicago area according to a suite of computer estimates, several of which exceeded 4.84″.
———-
Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
