Currently in Chicago — August 16, 2024: Mixed bag coming up

The weather, currently.

Clouds and rain will fill our skies for the next few days, starting tonight with probable thunderstorms and a low near 70. Showers and storms will continue off and on through Saturday night, with a muggy start to Friday heading to a high of 85. The rain will ease up on Sunday, cloudy with a high of 75.

With the DNC kicking off on Monday, we’re fortunate that all the street closures and CTA reroutes won’t be further complicated by severe weather. Look for sunny days with highs in the 70s and lows around 60 for the whole week.

— Katje Sabin

What you can do, currently.

A Media Matters analysis found that last year — the hottest calendar year on record — network coverage of climate actually declined in the US. What’s worse, just 12% of reports about climate change mentioned fossil fuels as the driving cause. The media still reported on extreme weather, but stopped short of making the climate connection.

Independent climate journalism like Currently is needed more than ever. And this year, with all of these weather warnings already underway, we’ll unfortunately have plenty of opportunities to do better.