Good Wednesday, everyone. It’s a much colder than normal pattern that continues across the entire region and this looks to stick around for a while. Odds favor this below normal setup to carry us into much of next week before we can bounce out of it.
Let’s begin with today and roll ahead. Temps are better with readings generally in the 50s with a mix of sun and clouds. There’s another weak front dropping in from the northwest tonight and this could bring a few chilly showers with it. There’s the small chance for a few flakes to show up with it. Here’s regional radar to follow this…
Much of that ends by daybreak with a decent, but chilly Thursday. Highs are back into the 50s. There’s another system rolling in here late Friday into Friday night. Temps may actually spike ahead of this across the southern half of the state…
That system brings snow to our north and rain to the bluegrass state…
Temps behind this come down a bit for Saturday with temps into the 50s for the most park. The weather looks much better as the day wears on.
Our next system is set to impact our weather Sunday into early Monday. The Euro is trying to keep this to our south…
Other models bring much more of a rain maker our way during this time.
Temps may spike a bit after this goes by, but odds favor another front later next week. Ugh.
Have a great day and take care.
Thanks Chris, HARD FREEZE in my backyard. Glad I don’t have any tender plants in the ground. Yesterday, we had snow flurries off and on throughout the day. Still looking forward to warmer, drier days ahead ? NOAA is predicting ENSO- neutral (65% chance) continuing through the Summer months. Could be a warm, wet and humid Summer ? Lets hope this doesn’t happen. Oh, one more thing Illinois Mike don’t put your snow shovel away yet. The NWS is forecasting a snowstorm for your area this Friday.
We have some garden plants – but I held off planting even the cold crops. Glad I did so. I am hopeful that sometime next week I can get some of the cold crops in, but I’ll be watching closely to see when this pattern breaks.
Hard to say when this “yo yo” weather pattern will break. We bottomed out at 25 degrees this morning. Too early to tell if the natural vegetation was damage (young tree leaves.) I would wait on planting even the cool crops. Surely, after the first week in May and if it is not too wet you would be okay to start your garden, but that is central Kentucky. I can’t speak for other areas of the state.
I’d watch for a 2007 type Summer after this. It was dry and hot.
That would be alright with me as long as we had some breaks between the heat and humidity.
Right… they’re forecasting several inches of snow for the SW suburbs of Chicago late Thursday night into Friday morning! No winter storm watches, warnings, or advisories are out yet for Illinois, but there very well could be as the event gets closer.
We received a preview this morning… between 1 and 1 1/2 inches of snow fell throughout the Chicago Metro area! This was a very quick-moving, but impressive area of snow, as visibilities were under a mile for a couple of hours.
The strong April sun has melted the snow this afternoon, except for the shady areas. Even with the sun-cloud mix, it is a very cold, breezy day, with temps only in the mid-30s here.
The ensembles snowfall forecast maps that Chris showed on the blog last week and the week before were right on target, showing the Chicago area getting between 2 and 3 inches total of snow in mid-April. Heck, it could even wind up being more than that!
The official low in Lexington this morning was 25. That tied the daily record low set in 1943. Fun fact, since records were kept in Lexington, only four days past April 15th have seen a lower temperature. Three of them were in 1875. The other was April 23, 1986 with a low of 24.
2.9 inches of snow fell Wednesday morning at the NWS office in Romeoville in the SW suburbs of Chicago, while 1.7 inches of snow fell at O’Hare Airport, an all-time record for the date. The morning low of 27 degrees was just two degrees off the all-time record low for the date.
A Winter Storm Watch is now in effect for parts of NW Illinois for the storm system coming in for late Thursday night/Friday morning. We’ll see if that watch is expanded eastward to the Chicago Metro Area.