Helene, the powerful storm that crashed into Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane, will deliver a gloomy weekend of weather to Chicagoland.
Chicago got its first taste of Helene last night when overcast skies moved in, said Kevin Doom, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Chicago office. Wind gusts resulting from Helene, which weakened to a tropical storm as it crawled inland over George, picked up in Chicagoland early Friday, Doom said.
“I don’t know if you’ve been outside recently, but it’s pretty windy out there,” Doom said Friday around 9 a.m.
Helene lashes the South with wind and sheets of rain. Millions are without power
The Windy City will become even more windy Friday afternoon, with gusts approaching 40 mph.
Rain brought on by Helene, which was making its way up Illinois Friday morning, probably won’t hit Chicago until late Friday, Doom said.
“We’re going to get a couple days here of some off and on, spotty showers that are going to be tied to the remnants of that hurricane,” Doom said. “So through Sunday we’re looking at some rain chances.”
When the eye of Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region around 10 p.m. Central Time, its maximum sustained winds were around 140 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
After Helene hit land, Doom said, it quickly was ingested by a “center of low pressure” that altered the storm’s path.
“That kind of stirred the track a little bit to the northwest, up toward the Midwest, whereas normally, the hurricane would probably shear off to the east,” Doom said.
As of 10:30 a.m., temperatures at O’Hare International Airport were 69 degrees, with breezy and cloudy conditions. A high of 72 was expected Friday.
Saturday, rain was expected before 7 a.m., with a chance of rain afterward and a high of 70. Sunday was expected to be mostly cloudy with a high near 72.
