DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - You've heard the ol' saying, "if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes." Although there is no firm proof, many attribute Mark Twain with coining the phrase. Regardless, we are on a wild ride in the weather department.
The weather won't change much in a short period of five minutes. However, warm to cold and back to warm weather will be a fixture of the next several days. We are just coming out of a brief cooler period. Now it's time for more warmth. That warmth will come at a severe weather price, though. Much of Thursday will be warm, windy and dry. That is, of course, until some big thunderstorms develop by late afternoon and evening. Right now, wind and hail will be the biggest concerns with these storms. A tornado cannot be ruled out, but early guidance has a stable layer of air at ground level. That means the unstable air aloft is where storms will fire. We call them elevated. Typically, elevated storms are more of a hail/wind problem instead of tornadic. More often than not, the stable surface air prevents a rotating column of air from penetrating it. So, while the tornado threat is currently low, that can change as we get closer to the event.
Stay tuned, stay safe and stay weather-aware.
Copyright 2026. WANDTV. All Rights Reserved.
