Not too Much of a Severe Threat

An upper level low spinning over Missouri has been providing us with abundent moisture throughout the day to bring heavy rain across some parts of the area. A cold front just off to the west has also been bringing severe weather to parts of Wisconsin. So with these two systems, why haven't we seen much severe weather? Well the jetstream, the steering for our storm systems, is parallel to the cold front. To typically get severe storms (ones with damaging winds, hail, and tornadoes) you need the winds to be blowing from different directions throughout the atmosphere. Since the winds are running parallel with each other, we are not getting that tonight. Even though there have been reports of wind damage to the north in Wisconsin and towards Chicago, that damage has been caused by outflow boundaries (rush of cold air) from the thunderstorms. Storms will probably last until a little after midnight and then things should begin to quiet down. Because there has been no major push from the jetstream, the gulf has been wide open to allow ample moisture to stream and allow heavy rainfall across most of the area.