All of Illinois Could See Explosive Storms Develop Late Next Week

It's time to put your thunderstorm goggles back on because a new outlook from forecasters shows explosive storms will likely develop over all of Illinois late next week.

I do normally check the NOAA Storm Prediction Center regularly, but Ryan Hall spotted this first. It's an advisory that the meteorologists have issued for this coming Thursday, May 15 which covers all of Illinois. The area shown is now at risk for explosive thunderstorm development.

I checked the Storm Prediction Center for myself and confirmed this is their Day 6 outlook for Thursday, May 15 which is exactly what Ryan scoped out.

What exactly does this advisory mean and what kind of storms are possible for Illinois?

This means there is a 15% risk of Illinois and the surrounding areas seeing severe storms develop that day. We're still too far out to know if this will include supercell development with tornadoes or straight line winds. I can tell you that when NOAA issues a slight risk, you can count on some type of severe weather development that day. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. It also would not surprise me if the Storm Prediction Center upgrades Illinois to a marginal risk of 30% or higher once they see more exact computer models showing what's coming.

This is obviously not unusual for anyone that's lived in Illinois for any length of time. The difference this year is we've been in a relative lull with mild non-stormy weather the past couple of weeks. That's about to change and you won't have to wait long to see it. Make yourself storm aware for Thursday, May 15 now.