Have the rain gear handy today. There will be periods of rain and storms around. The first round is moving through this morning. Scattered rainfall and storm activity are sliding through the state. However, by the early afternoon, we should start breaking out into some sunshine. This will help destabilize the atmosphere and bring a great potential, although still a low chance, for a couple stronger storms along a broken line that will develop this evening.

The Storm Prediction Center has the eastern half of the state under a marginal risk for severe weather. This means one or two storms may be capable of reaching severe limits with damaging winds being the primary threat.

The cold front that will pass tonight is currently positioned over western Illinois as of Wednesday morning. It will slowly move east through the day before passing tonight. Once it passes, winds will shift out of the northwest, cooling us down and bringing in a drier air mass.

Wednesday will be warm and humid with highs in the mid 80s. We’ll be cooler and much less humid Thursday and keep this more early fall-like pattern for the rest of the week.