Currently in Chicago — July 19, 2024: A beautiful summer weekend

The weather, currently.

Aside from some choppy water in the lake through tonight, the next three days will be examples of a textbook Perfect Summer Weekend. After temps drop to the low 60s tonight, we’ll soar to the dizzying high of 76 on Friday. Second verse, same as the first… Saturday and Sunday will follow the same pattern, with lows in the 60s and highs in the mid- and upper-70s.

After that rough-and-tumble start of the week that closed a few beaches from high waves, the lake should settle down. Monday will warm up into the 80s, and we could see rain by Tuesday.

— 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.