The 13th weekend here since meteorological spring began March 14 opens Saturday with Chicago at the calm heart of a high pressure predicted to begin warming Sunday–the first stage of a transition to a warmer, more humid weather regime next week. Much of the air movement at the heart of a high pressure system takes place vertically. Air sinks rather than moves horizontally as wind–and what wind blows tends to be disorganized (of varying directions) and will likely fade away in the coolness of night. Seasonable temperatures result–though more southerly winds will take hold Sunday afternoon.
In a final assault before lifting north and away from the U.S., the huge storm responsible for unleashing a 4-5 hour wind-driven, lightning-punctuated deluge Thursday across north suburban Lake and McHenry counties, spawned thunderstorms to Chicago’s east across 18 states Friday. Hail up to 4.25″ wide crashed earthward from thunder-storms as they raced across Ohio. By late Friday evening, NOAA tal-lied 292 reports of severe weather.
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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.
