Chilly Tuesday Morning

Winter’s presence sure was felt across the region Monday. From the 0.5″ of snow that Rockford observed to temperatures only peaking in the upper 30s and low 40s, it definitely felt much MUCH different from what we enjoyed all of last week.

Skies gradually cleared overnight, allowing temperatures to quickly fall into the upper 20s and low 30s. Now, the good that comes out of the clearing skies is that we’re not waking up to snowy scene like we did Monday morning. However, you will walk out to quite the chill and a bit of frost on your car if you left it out overnight. So bundle up friends!

The National Weather Service did issue a Freeze Warning yesterday for all of our northern Illinois counties. That is set to expire at 8AM this morning.

Thanks to an area of high pressure moving in from the central plains, the rest of our Tuesday remains dry under wall-to-wall sunshine. Despite the fact winds today will remain chilly out of the northwest, temperatures will peak near-seasonable levels, in the upper 50s.

Cloud cover will increase late Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning as our focus shifts to a round of thunderstorms that develop over central Iowa.

Pattern Turns Active Again:

Guidance remained consistent this morning in showing a potent line of thunderstorms forming to our west prior to sunrise Wednesday. With time, this line will race eastward, sliding over the northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin between 8AM-11AM. Severe potential is low, but gusty winds may accompany this line as it slides on through. For that, the Storm Prediction Center continues to keep the entire area under a level 1 Marginal Risk.

This won’t be the only opportunity that we’ll need to keep an eye on Wednesday. A warm front lifting into the region may help fire up a second round of showers and thunderstorms late Wednesday into early Thursday. In a similar fashion to the first round, these could also produce strong winds, with small-sized hail also being a possibility.

Thursday’s thunderstorm potential resides with the associated cold front. Chances will be highest between 1PM-6PM, with strong winds again being the biggest concern. Temperatures ahead of the cold front will warm into the upper 60s, close to 70-degrees.

At first, there isn’t much cold air that filters in behind the front. Highs Friday are slated to peak in the upper 50s. It’s Saturday that we see another rush of cold air filter in behind a secondary storm system, dropping highs into the mid to upper 40s.