Currently in Chicago — August 27, 2024: Helter Swelter

The weather, currently.

Not gonna lie, it’s bad out there right now and it’s gonna get worse. After we drop down to a balmy 77 overnight, we will see the mercury climb back up to near 97, with the heat index topping 105.

We have a small chance of showers and potentially severe thunderstorms in the early morning hours and again over Tuesday night, which could give us a break in the temps but might push the humidity up even more (did you know about corn sweat? I didn’t!). We have active excessive heat warnings (city cooling centers are open) as well as pollen and air quality alerts.

— 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.