Weather Story

Work Week Forecast

Hot and Humid Midweek

Flood Watch Through This Evening

Severe Weather Outlook

Thunderstorms will be most numerous today into this evening, and some of them may produce very heavy rain. Expect the rain threat to diminish for a time midweek, then pick up again Thursday as a cold front arrives. This front will bring less humid conditions for the end of the week, though temperatures remain seasonably warm.

The hottest weather of this week will be during the middle of the week, especially on Wednesday when heat index values of 100 degree or higher are likely. Nighttime won't provide much relief, with the heat index only falling into the mid 70s. If you have to be outside, wear light-weight, light-colored clothing, and try to limit activities to early morning or the evening. If you don't have air conditioning available, check within your local community to see if there are any cooling centers available for short term relief.

A Flood Watch has been issued for all of central and southeast Illinois through this evening. Thunderstorms will be capable of producing rainfall amounts of 2 to 3 inches per hour, which will lead to localized flash flooding. This is most likely during the afternoon and early evening.

A few thunderstorms today and Tuesday will be strong to locally severe (level 1 risk). Today, these are most likely to be near and south of I-70. While the main threat will be with localized damaging wind gusts, a few funnel clouds will also be possible. On Tuesday, the threat is over a much larger area, with isolated damaging winds and large hail the main concerns.