Weather

A Facebook group providing frequent reports on weather events in Central Illinois has gained traction.

Summer afternoon temperatures have cooled off in the middle of the country in recent decades. But hotter nights and winters are still driving more overall warmth in the region.

Poor air quality caused by Canadian wildfires is expected to persist into Friday in Bloomington-Normal, according to the National Weather Service.

Next year's budget proposal for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, amplifies previous worries with potential cuts to several key programs and projects. WGLT talks to three Central Illinois experts about the possible consequences.

One location near Towanda reported over 4.5 inches of rain Tuesday during the afternoon and evening hours, according to storm reports from the National Weather Service.

Destructive tornadoes have hit states such as Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana this season as activity shifts east. Meanwhile, scientists say dry and hot weather in the Great Plains brought on by climate change could be slowing the number of tornadoes there.

While two of the tornadoes were southeast of Bloomington-Normal, the bulk of the twisters were in west-central Illinois. The strongest was an EF-2 reported northeast of Jacksonville in Morgan County.

With today officially marking the first day of summer, extreme heat and humidity are expected to sweep through Central Illinois and the Midwest.

A dust storm, also known as a haboob, forms when strong, straight-line winds meet soil residue sitting among crops, collecting the dust there, rising it from the ground and bringing it together to form a wall-like cloud.

A new report from the National Weather Service concluded that a combination of drier soil, recent agricultural tilling, and dry windy conditions formed the rare dust storm that swept through Central Illinois on May 16.