Temperatures, humidity to continue climbing Wednesday

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - For a third straight day and already the 13th time in 2023, temperatures climbed into the 80s throughout the Stateline as a remarkably mild trend continues.

Temperatures officially topped out at 87° at the Chicago-Rockford International Airport, while towns like Freeport, Sterling, and Rochelle all came in at 89°.

As winds shift from their current southeasterly direction to more of a southerly direction beginning Wednesday, the warming trend will continue, likely producing out first 90° temperatures over the majority of the area. What’s more, humidity levels are to continue their slow, but steady climb. It’s not to become oppressive here or likely anywhere close to it, but there will be a noticeably more muggy feel to the air compared to recent days.

Beginning Wednesday and lasting into at least Monday, temperatures area to top out at 89° or higher each day.

Wednesday’s to start off quietly, and with a fair amount of sunshine. However, an increasingly warm and moist airmass may prove to be at least a somewhat fertile breeding ground for isolated to widely scattered showers and thunderstorms to develop in the afternoon. To be clear, not all of us will see rain. In fact, the majority of us will not. Those who do, however, could pick up some brief downpours before the storms quickly collapse as the sun goes down and our atmosphere becomes more stable. Thankfully, severe weather is not a concern for us Wednesday.

Thursday looks to be about as close to a carbon copy of Wednesday as one could imagine. We’ll start quietly, then see showers and storms develop on a widely scattered basis in the afternoon, only to see the skies clear quickly Thursday evening. Again, severe weather is not a concern for us at all.

More of the same can be expected Friday, though Friday’s setup appears to be slightly more conducive for more organized activity.

While localized downpours are possible with any of these storms on any of these next three days, it’s important to note that this will not provide a long term solution to our growing drought concerns. It’s to be viewed as more of a band-aid than anything else. What’s needed here is a long, soaking rain, or even multiple long, soaking rains, and unfortunately, such events are not showing up in computer model projections at this time. Heading into the summer months during which rain is critical, the growing precipitation deficits we’re seeing are concerning and will need monitoring.

Copyright 2023 WIFR. All rights reserved.