Whitney Williams
Meteorologist
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Meteorologist Whitney Williams is a member of the WGEM StormTrak Weather team.
Whitney grew up in Illinois and learned to love the weather at a young age. From the time she was in junior high school all the way into college, she knew meteorology was her dream job.
Prior to coming to WGEM, Whitney worked as a meteorologist at WLBT-TV in Jackson, MS. She also spent time at WCBI in Columbus, MS.
Whitney attended Mississippi State University and earned her meteorology degree there. At Mississippi State, she participated in the WxChallenge which is the North American collegiate weather forecasting competition. She was ranked in the top twenty percent in the country each year she participated.
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Through the day, we will be waiting on a cold front to arrive. Before the front arrives, we will be sitting under a warm and muggy/humid airmass.
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The day will shape up mostly sunny to partly cloudy. We will have southerly winds that will gust 20 to 25 mph. The sunshine and breezy southerly winds will help push temperatures up into the mid 80s. Dew point temperatures will be rising into the 60s, which means it will start to feel a little humid.
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The rain will continue through the morning, gradually moving a little further north. However, some counties will completely miss out on this rain. Especially those on the northwestern tier of the Tri-States.
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The return to an active spring pattern will begin late this evening and overnight. A series of waves will move through the region, largely helping to regulate thunderstorm chances.
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Dry today, but our first chance of rain for the week will arrive tomorrow night.
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We will enjoy sunny to mostly sunny skies through the first half of the day. Then, as a cold front starts to approach, very gradually clouds will start to build as we head into the late afternoon timeframe. By early evening, showers and thunderstorms will redevelop over the Tri-States.
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The ridge responsible for our early taste of summer continues to sit over the region.
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We are looking to break the record high of 88°, which was set in 2000.
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The southerly winds will continue, aiding in additional warm air advection (warmer air being transported into the area). Therefore, today will be hotter and more humid.
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Into this afternoon, a warm front will be moving through the area. This front will start to bring in warmer and more humid air.
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A low pressure system is just to the south of us and it has lingering wrap-around light spotty showers.
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We have nearly widespread showers passing through the Tri-States this morning. The rain will continue through the morning hours. Thankfully, the heaviest of the rain will stay to our south.
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Our next weather system is off to our west though and this system will be bring us widespread rain. As a warm front lifts northward towards the region, rain showers will start to arrive overnight tonight into tomorrow.
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The bulk of the rain has moved out of the Tri-States. However a few more spotty light showers, mainly on the Iowa and Illinois side, will still be possible through about 8 AM/9 AM. Then, the rest of the day will be dry for everyone. What will happen next is a high pressure system will build into the northern U.S. along the Canadian border. Even though this high pressure will be a long ways away, it will impact our weather.
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As we head through the morning, clouds will build into the area. This will gradually take us over to a mostly cloudy sky. Then, rain arrives later in the day.
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The showers will continue through this afternoon. At times, there will be some lighting and thunder and some heavy downpours. With those heavy downpours, some water ponding on the roads will be possible. Overnight tonight into tomorrow, a cold front will be approaching the area. This will bring us yet another round of showers and thunderstorms.
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The high pressure system that was directly overhead yesterday, is now going to slowly move eastward. Nevertheless, today will turn out beautifully.
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With high pressure overhead today, we will get to enjoy wall to wall blue skies. However, temperatures will still be below normal for this time of year.
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Temperatures will be able to drop very easily and efficiently tonight. Lows will be in the low 30s and widespread frost is expected to develop. For that reason, freeze warnings and frost advisories will go into effect late tonight through tomorrow morning.
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Thanks to the warm front coming through this morning, daytime highs will be noticeably warmer, in the low 80s. Dew points will be rising into the 60s through the day.
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The lower levels of the atmosphere will dry out quickly through the morning and afternoon. Therefore, into the evening when some showers try to develop ahead of the warm front they will struggle. As more moisture is quickly fed into the Tri-States, we’ll start seeing some scattered showers and thunderstorms late in the evening.
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We have a weather alert for the day, due to gusty winds and rain throughout the day.
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We’ll keep the sunshine around for much of the day. However, clouds will be gradually building into the area.
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Portions of the Tri-States will be under a Freeze Warning late tonight into tomorrow morning. Frost and freeze conditions could kill/damage sensitive vegetation and possibly damage unprotected outdoor plumbing.
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Clouds will quickly start to move back into the area, leading to a mostly cloudy day. Then we'll have a chance of rain this weekend.
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A Wind Advisory will be in effect for much of the Tri-States through late this evening.
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The cold front has cleared the Tri-States this afternoon. Because of that, our chance for severe storms is now over. However, we are still getting rain. Some of which will have heavy downpours and lightning and thunder.
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A warm front will move rapidly northward through the Tri-States by this afternoon. This front will bring in much warmer and more humid air.
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We will be focused on Wednesday. A potent cold front will be heading our way. This front will bring us showers and thunderstorms. But the concern is that some of the storms could be on the strong to severe side.
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Temperatures are cold enough that most of the showers consist of just snow. I’ve seen just a few pockets of a rain/snow mix. As expected, these showers are not widespread and they will not lead to any travel impacts. The snowflakes have been very fine/small.
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The big cooldown, spotty shower potential and breezy winds will be the main story through the next about 48 hours.
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One of the bigger topics of the day may be on the windy conditions though.
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This is certainly not an explosive environment or a big severe weather day for us by any stretch of the imagination, but this slight increase in instability/fuel is just enough to warrant an increased potential for a few of the storms to be on the strong to severe side.
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Through the day, we’ll have partly sunny skies, meaning a mixture of sun and clouds. We’ll have some stubborn clouds sticking with us, but at other times you’ll see some sunshine.
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We will finally get to see some very nice sunshine today as high pressure builds into the area. However, some thin upper-level clouds will start to arrive this afternoon and evening.
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Another wave will drop down from the north and will bring more scattered rain/snow showers into the area late this morning into the afternoon. As temperatures get a little warmer in the afternoon we’ll see just some spotty light rain showers/drizzle.
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For tonight, we’ll continue to have the cloudy skies and scattered light rain showers. However, we’ll have the chance for some snow to mix in with the rain.
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The day will shape up windy though. Winds will be sustained out of the southeast at about 15 - 20 mph. On top of that, gusts of 30 - 35 mph will be possible.
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Daytime highs will, yet again, be below normal. This time of year, we typically have highs in the upper 50s. Today though will be in the mid to upper 40s (depending on where you live in the area).
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A Wind Advisory will be in effect for Scotland and Clark County in Missouri, Lee County in Iowa, and Hancock and McDonough County in Illinois from 1 PM Friday through 10 PM Friday. A Wind Advisory will also be in effect for Schuyler County in Illinois from 1 PM Friday through 3 AM Saturday.
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Rain showers have been moving through, but they have been on the lighter side. However, with temperatures in the 30s snow will mix in with some of the rain. Not everyone will see this though.
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Scattered showers will continue on and off again through the day. Due to the considerable cloud cover, rain showers, and cooler air filtering in behind the cold front it will be a cooler day.
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By this afternoon, showers and thunderstorms will develop along or just ahead of a cold front over in western Missouri.
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We have an elevated fire danger for this afternoon and evening. This will be due to the warmer temperatures, the breezy southerly winds, low relative humidity and dry fuels on the ground. So outdoor burning is strongly discouraged today.
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A low pressure system to our southwest is moving northeast towards the Tri-States. Because of this, we have cloudy skies and rain showers have moved into the area.
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We are currently waiting on our next weather system to arrive. Before it gets here, we’ll have another day with above normal temperatures.
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The sunshine and southwesterly winds will allow temperatures to warm up into the low 70s for everyone. That is about 15 - 20 degrees above normal for this time of year.
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A weak boundary/trough has been making its way through the Tri-States. As it clears the area, the clouds have been southeast with it, but also shrinking in coverage. This is leading to some sunshine.
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Later this afternoon, some upper-level clouds will start to move into the area. Those clouds are pretty thin though, so the sun can still get through them pretty easily. It’s not until later this evening and tonight when the clouds will start to thicken up more.