Watching for weather impact here after storms batter California

California takes a beating with more rain on the way

California continues to take a beating from the Atmospheric River crashing into the West Coast off of the waters of the northern Pacific. In the past few days the stormy weather has produced damaging winds in excess of 100 mph in some higher locations, heavy flood-producing rains well in excess of 5 inches in many areas along with several feet of snow in the Sierras. The weather producing low-pressure impulses off of the Pacific will continue Tuesday, Thursday- Friday then again Saturday-Sunday.

The impulses that hit the West coast will make their way east across the Rockies.  The current storm-producing impulse will bring cloudiness here Tuesday night into Wednesday, followed by a light snow event here Thursday and a rain-producer here early next week.

Snow possible here Thursday

Wednesday low pressure is expected to move out of the central plains east – tracking up the Ohio River Valley Thursday. This track could give the Chicago area some light rain Wednesday night and possibly an accumulating snow Thursday. To better determine the extent of rain/snow here, we need to monitor closely the development of this system, as the upper impulse first hits the California coast and ripples over the Rockies before triggering the plains low pressure along with subsequent movement. and intensification. Stay tuned!

Sunday – Sunniest day in Chicago since the last day of 2022

We’ve gone through quite a stretch of cloudy days in the past 5 weeks…in December Chicago experienced 17 days with 0% sunshine and already in January we have an additional 5. On Sunday, while many portions of the Chicago area went a 6th straight day with overcast skies (including O’Hare Airport), the sun did break out over central and southern Chicago – Chicago’s. Veteran Weather Observer, Frank Wachowski’s sunshine sensor near Midway Airport recorded 38% of possible sunshine – the last time he measured nearly that much sunshine was December 31 when we received 36%. So far in January we have received only 7% of possible sunshine