PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — It has been a beautiful week with mostly sunny skies and comfortable temperatures, but the weather pattern will become more active this weekend with summer-like heat building in after.

Key Takeaways

  • Non-severe storms possible Saturday night & Sunday morning
  • Severe storms possible Sunday evening
    • Damaging winds, large hail and isolated tornadoes possible
  • Summer-like heat and humidity Tuesday & Wednesday

Weekend Storm Chances

The weather will remain quiet and comfortable on Saturday with partly cloudy skies and temperatures warming into the mid to upper 80s. While a stray shower is possible, the chances of any measurable or impactful rain remains low. A complex of thunderstorms could shift across Central Illinois late Saturday night into early Sunday morning. While these storms are not expected to be severe, they may produce locally heavy rain, small hail and gusty winds.

Any lingering storms Sunday morning should quickly come to an end leaving the region under partly cloudy to mostly clear skies by early Sunday afternoon. This break should allow temperatures to warm back into the upper 80s allowing the atmosphere to recover and destabilize ahead of an approaching cold front. Between 5 PM and 8 PM scattered storms are expected to redevelop Sunday evening in eastern Iowa/ western Illinois along the cold front, likely around or just after sunset, then track southeast through Central Illinois.

Damaging wind gusts over 60 mph and large hail are the primary threats, but isolated tornadoes will also be possible. The Storm Prediction Center has placed the entire area under a Level 2 threat (Slight Risk). As confidence in the timing and placement of these storms increases, an expansion or upgrade of these risk areas is possible in the future. Rainfall amounts will generally range from 0.50″ to 1.50″ with locally higher amounts possible.

Summer Heat Returns

The departing cold front will leave temperatures in the mid 80s on Monday with showers ending in the morning and clouds decreasing in the afternoon. As high pressure builds in, a strengthening heat dome will send temperatures in the upper 80s to lower 90s over much of Central Illinois on Tuesday and Wednesday with heat indices around 100°. While not record setting, these temperatures will be close. Record highs for September 20th and 21st are 94 and 93 respectively.

A cold front will then move across the region Wednesday night and/or Thursday morning bringing fall like temperatures back to Central Illinois to end the work week and begin the new weekend.