textproduct: Central Illinois

KEY MESSAGES

- Periods of showers and a few thunderstorms are expected today into tonight, with the focus gradually shifting from the I-74 corridor this morning, to near and south of I-72 later today. The HREF is showing a 100% chance of total rainfall greater than 0.5 inch and 50% chance of greater than an inch south of I-70 for today.

- While a temporary warmup takes place on Saturday, it will be towards the middle of next week when we should get a sustained warming trend for late week.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 247 AM CDT Fri May 8 2026

Lingering showers have been pulsing along and north of I-74 this morning. These will come to an end in the next few hours, with a brief break before the next shortwave presses into the forecast area late this morning. Additional showers and thunderstorms will develop in western IL and will travel east through the day, mainly along and south of the I-72 corridor by mid afternoon into the evening.

Amounts won't be overly impressive with the wave of rain today but the highest amount looks to be south of I-70. The HREF is showing a 100% chance of total rainfall greater than 0.5 inch and 50% chance of greater than an inch south of I-70 for today. It looks like the wave of rain today may train over the same areas throughout the day so some nuisance field or low lying flooding may occur where the ground is already saturated. The current forecast does appear to be below 6 hour flash flood guidance, so that is promising.

The forecast is mostly benign over the next week. A brief warm up Saturday into the 80s, then cooling back into the 60s for the new week. A gradual warm up looks to be on deck through the next week. Several periods of precipitation chances are in the forecast after today. The best of those chances look like Tuesday with 20-50% chances areawide. There aren't any severe chances in the forecast at this time for the next 8 days.

AVIATION /06Z TAFS THROUGH 06Z SATURDAY/

Issued at 1221 AM CDT Fri May 8 2026

Another period of showers and storms are expected this afternoon into early evening. Predominantly VFR conditions are forecast though brief MVFR cig/visby reductions are possible with any thunderstorms at the southern sites. Winds will increase from the southwest by mid morning, then lessen once again overnight.

ILX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

None.