


Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Central Illinois
Issued by NWS Central Illinois
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285 FXUS63 KILX 120514 AFDILX Area Forecast Discussion...Updated Aviation National Weather Service Lincoln IL 1214 AM CDT Sat Jul 12 2025 .KEY MESSAGES... - Thunderstorms will sweep into the Illinois River Valley this evening. Areas of heavy rainfall are the main threat for isolated flooding, especially if it falls in urban and poor drainage areas. - Daily chances for afternoon/evening thunderstorms will be seen through the weekend. SPC has a marginal risk for severe weather in place for Saturday and Sunday. - Hot and humid conditions will be in place through the end of this week and again early next week. Temperatures look to trend cooler by the end of next week. && .UPDATE... Issued at 908 PM CDT Fri Jul 11 2025 A slow moving line of thunderstorms continues to progress southeastward into the Illinois River Valley this evening. An outflow evident on radar ahead of the storms signals a decrease in severe weather potential, and high resolution model data corroborate the decrease in intensity of storms late this evening with further extent southeastward. Deep layer wind shear in the environment these storms are moving into is under 30 kts, also on the weak side for severe storms. Nevertheless, any storms able to catch up with the outflow or develop an intense enough updraft could pose a threat for an isolated storm with large hail or locally damaging wind gusts. Main feature that will need to be watched for is flooding, as portions of Knox, Stark, and Marshall counties already saw heavy rainfall in the past day, and could start to see flooding develop with a quick 1.5+ inch rainfall. For the most part, the line has started to move fast enough that rainfall looks like it may avoid reaching critical thresholds, but any segments that slow down could be problematic. Otherwise, a warm night appears to be on track for tonight, with lows in the lower to mid 70s, as the cold front trailing this evenings storms remains northwest of the IL River through the nighttime hours. 37 && .DISCUSSION... Issued at 208 PM CDT Fri Jul 11 2025 A seasonably hot and humid airmass will remain in place through the weekend as a parade of shortwave troughs push across the Mid- Mississippi Valley. The net effect will be daily chances for thunderstorms, some of which may carry an attendant risk for severe weather and/or flash flooding. This afternoon, very buoyant boundary layer conditions have evolved across the warm sector, with central and southeast Illinois positioned south of a sharpening warm front. Sfc temps have warmed into the upper 80s with dewpoints in the mid 70s. The latest 18z RAP analysis suggests no residual capping exists amid a backdrop of moderate MLCAPE (1500-3000 J/kg), with the greatest of this instability focused across far west central Illinois. Within the kinematic parameter space, an area of enhanced deep-layer shear (30-40 kts) is being analyzed near and north of the I-80 corridor over eastern Iowa and northern Illinois, and is directly tied to a narrow mid-level speed max lifting across that area. A quick glance at water vapor imagery reveals a few subtle shortwave impulses lifting northeastward over north-central Missouri and south-central Iowa, ahead of both a stronger convectively-induced shortwave and the main shortwave trough axis. These more subtle shortwaves could provide the necessary forcing to support scattered thunderstorm development as early as this afternoon across west-central Illinois, mainly between 4-6pm local time. Short but cyclonically curved hodographs this afternoon support skinny, cellular updrafts that may have a tendency to consolidate and grow upscale fairly quickly. Mesoscale soundings from the HRRR in areas north of the Illinois River valley reveal very steep low- level lapse rates (> 9.5 C/km) and robust DCAPE values (> 1100 J/kg). This all adds up to a large hail (up to quarter size) and damaging downburst (greater than 60 mph) risk with any storm that may develop this afternoon. The greater chance and better coverage of thunderstorms will come this evening (between 7-10pm local time) with the arrival of the stronger, convectively-induced shortwave. This disturbance will once again augment deep-layer shear (30-40 kts) across portions of southeast Iowa and west-central Illinois. In addition, a modest low-level jet will begin to veer into west central Illinois, helping to maintain a favorably buoyant parameter space. The hodograph, while it does lengthen a bit due to the impinging LLJ, is not supportive of isolated supercells, especially with the mean wind and deep-layer shear vectors discouraging cross-boundary flow. Instead, new updrafts will have a tendency to consolidate and become linear. This again supports primarily a damaging wind threat (gusts > 60 mph) across portions of west central and central Illinois. Modest low-level ambient shear and strong theta-e differentials suggest the line of storms may quickly become outflow dominant as they evolve eastward in time and space later this evening. This lends a question as to how far east the damaging wind threat may extend, with the greatest risk perhaps staying west of I-55. Once the line of storms becomes outflow dominant later this evening, the risk for heavy rainfall and flash flooding could still remain overnight as the mature cold pool and modest LLJ work together to help maintain updraft development beneath a sink of healthy MUCAPE. Rainfall rates could eclipse 1/hr wherever backbuilding occurs. But overall, the coverage of storms should continue to fade overnight as the convectively-induced shortwave departs our area. Additional storm development is likely Saturday afternoon as the synoptic cold front pushes in from the west. A favorably buoyant environment will once again evolve by around midday, though deep- layer shear will be notably less present tomorrow (< 20 kts). The relatively weak deep-layer shear and poor mid-level lapse rates (< 6.5 C/km) suggests updrafts will struggle to hold together. Thus, both coverage and intensity of thunderstorms tomorrow ought to be less than today. Still, there will be enough sfc convergence along the front to support at least scattered storms. As we head into next week, some uncertainty remains with how far south the cold front will drift before washing out on Sunday. Right now, our southernmost counties remain clipped by a marginal risk by SPC. Elsewhere across our area, conditions appear to become drier and continued seasonably hot through at least Monday as a ridge builds in. Rain chances then increase by the middle-to- late stages of next week as shortwave activity increases across the Plains and helps push a few sfc boundaries across central IL. MJA && .AVIATION... (For the 06z TAFs through 06z Saturday Night) Issued at 1212 AM CDT Sat Jul 12 2025 A decaying line of thunderstorms with a preceding gust front with winds gusting 30-40kt out of the west/northwest is moving across central Illinois during the early overnight hours. Some rain may linger over the region through around 09Z but the more intense storms have ended across central IL. Winds will go light and variable for a few hours behind the gust front, then will set up out of the northwest around 10 kt by mid to late Saturday morning. A period of MVFR ceilings is expected around this same time, and should scatter back to VFR early afternoon. Storms are expected to redevelop Saturday afternoon, though confidence on station remains low with better chances for storms to form east/southeast of the terminals. Still, a prob30 will cover this chance at DEC/CMI. Deubelbeiss && .ILX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Flood Watch until 1 AM CDT early this morning for ILZ027-028-030. && $$