A line of severe storms is expected to reach Central Illinois heading into the weekend.
James Auten, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lincoln, said a strong system developing in Iowa and Missouri will arrive in the Peoria area after 9 p.m. Friday.
“Those storms are expected to be pretty strong, moving to the northeast very quickly at 60 mph,” said Auten. “We are expecting high winds out of these storms in excess of 70-75 or 75-80 mph, and also there's a possibility we could see a few tornadoes with the system.
“We are expecting kind of a linear or a line of storms, and sometimes with lines of storms you do get embedded, I don't want to say super cells, but you get areas where you can get tornadoes that could spin up pretty quickly.”
Auten said the storms also could produce hail, up to golf ball-sized. He said the system will move through the area quickly, but the storms will be capable of causing significant damage in a short period of time.
He said daytime conditions Friday ahead of the storm will be dry, windy and warm, with wind gusts between 40-50 mph and the high temperature approaching 80 degrees.
“The winds are going to remain strong through Friday night all the way into early Saturday morning, [and] the winds could still be strong as well during the Saturday afternoon time frame,” said Auten. “We could see winds gusting 20-35 mph. So it won't be as windy on Saturday, but still you’re going to have some pretty strong winds even after the storms have moved through.”
Auten said there could be some scattered rain and possibly light snow with no accumulation late Saturday into early Sunday. After that, conditions will remain mostly dry before a chance of rain returns in the middle of next week.
