Good Wednesday, everyone. It’s another mild day that has us all in a full blown case of spring fever and the mild looks to hang on into Thursday. After this, we watch for the increasing potential for thunderstorms to move into the region. This kicks off another active pattern likely to carry us into next week. That’s when a fight between winter and spring takes place.
Before I get to all that, the numbers for February are in. This turned out to be the coldest February in decades for the country…
The February contiguous U.S. average temperature was 30.6°F, 3.2°F below average — the 19th coldest February on record and the coldest February since 1989. https://t.co/Mh3WFhODzX #StateOfClimate pic.twitter.com/hts1Tzrn5b
— NOAA NCEI Climate (@NOAANCEIclimate) March 9, 2021
Temps out there today will generally range from the upper 60s to low 70s as southwest winds begin to gust up. These winds will increase as we head into Thursday and could boost temps close to 75 in some areas. Some higher gusts will be possible Thursday night and early Friday as a cold front drops in from the northwest. 40mph gusts will be possible…
Showers and thunderstorms will be common Thursday night into early Friday. This action may slow down a bit, but returns Friday night into the first part of Saturday as the front checks up on top of us…
Cooler air comes in behind this for the weekend as we watch a big storm system spin to our west. That bowling ball of a low rolls eastward and may bring strong storms in here Sunday night and Monday, bringing another round of showers and storms.
Some hefty rain totals show up through Monday…
The setup for next week continues to feature a fight between winter and spring, but there’s a real shot for winter to land a few punches. The GFS Ensembles keep spitting out some snows over the next two weeks…
Oh, come on!!!
Have a great day and take care.
Weather history was made on Tuesday in the Chicago area, as the high temperature at O’Hare Airport reached 69 degrees under sunny skies and windy conditions, tying the all-time record high for the date set 47 years ago in 1974.
Wednesday’s record high temp of 70 degrees is also in danger of being tied or broken, but a Wind Advisory has been issued for Northern and Central IL and NW Indiana through Wednesday evening. Wind gusts near 50 MPH are expected.
All this occurring just three weeks after parts of the Chicago area received as much as 17 inches of snow and temps in the single digits area-wide.
In February, in my backyard we had an inch of Ice and seven inches of Snow and a low temperature of ten degrees. The Snow came towards the end of a series of Winter weather events.
I think it is getting too warm too early. I like the colder or cooler mornings until we get into the month of May when the chances for frost and freezes are over.
I wanted to thank Chris for all the updates. I’m ready for warm 70s & 80s myself, but always enjoy to hear the thunder too.