Currently in Chicago — June 21, 2024: Weekend Warmup

The weather, currently.

We’re having a brief respite from the heat along the lake today. My windows are wide open and my dogs are perkier than they’ve been in weeks. We might even drop down into the 60s tonight, and tomorrow will be just a little bit warmer, in the low 80s.

But then the heat comes roaring back for the weekend, and it’s not kidding around. We’ll have heat indices up near 100° as scattered thunderstorms push the humidity levels up. Saturday night’s alright for fighting, and for lightning too… that’s when we’ll have the highest likelihood of storms coming through.

— 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.