Tracking showers and storms, much cooler air this weekend
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy with scattered storms possible. Lows in the mid-70s.
TOMORROW: Partly cloudy with a storm or two in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 80s with a heat index between 93-95.
EXTENDED: Heat holds on into this evening with relief not coming until overnight as a front slowly works its way through. Scattered storms have started to develop along the boundary across west-central Illinois and will back build west into this evening. The best chance for anything strong will likely be across northeast Missouri in the next few hours, but storms will drift south late tonight before mostly dissipating into the morning. A few isolated storms are possible during the day as the front slides to our southwest, but the majority of the rain for our area over the next few days will come Friday night into Saturday morning as a complex of storms. This is expected to move into Mid-MO likely late (after 10-11 PM) from the north and slowly shift southeast through Saturday morning. There is a marginal severe weather threat for this batch, but my main concern will be isolated flooding with how much water these storms will be packing. A few strong wind gusts between 40-50 mph will also be possible. The third and final round of storms is a little more conditional on what happens in the morning but could develop along or south of Highway 50 early Saturday evening and push south. This will also pose a heavy rain threat with the potential of a few strong wind gusts. Overall, the storms over the next few days likely won't be worthy of a Weather Alert Day but could bring a total of 2" or so of rain to the area. Showers and storms exit Saturday night, leaving us with some perfect weather to close out the weekend. Highs on Saturday in the wake of rain will struggle to make it to 80 degrees, but as everything clears out we'll see the low to mid-80s Sunday with MUCH lower humidity. Next week is looking amazing for the first week of August with sunshine and highs in the low to mid-80s all week. Dew points remain in the lower 60s, so there won't be a heat index to speak of.
