Wet weather and clouds with an upper-air storm, generating pockets of significant rainfall over the drought-parched South, is to swing north toward Chicago in coming days. North America’s primary jet stream has abandoned the wet disturbance in the past 24 hours–a development which has slowed the system in its tracks. This increases the odds that waves of rainfall from Tennessee east to the Carolinas could yield as much as 5-6″ of rain in a region desperately in need of moisture and in the midst of its worst drought on record. But, the cut-off system is to begin easing north into the Midwest, sending clouds into Chicago Wednesday night and Thursday.
Rainfall follows–starting as sprinkles Thursday then building in coverage and intensity at times Friday into Saturday morning. Projections of rainfall later this week in Chicago vary widely among a suite of computer forecasts–from as little as 0.30″ to as much as 1.61″. Chilly weather and blustery northerly winds follow Saturday afternoon into Sunday–with even cooler weather possible by mid next week.
Sources: National Weather Service archives, various computer models
WGN-TV/Thomas Valle, James Andersen, Meredith Garofalo
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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.
