It's amazing how much difference there is in the temperature these day depending upon whether the sun is shining or not. Cyclonic circulation from a nor'easter off the east coast keep the north central part of Illinois under stratocumulus clouds all day. The clouds have kept the temperatures down. You do not have to go all that far to the west and you can see the difference the strong March sunshine makes. Where the sun has been shining all afternoon it reached 66 degrees in Savanna on the river. That's a full 20 degrees warmer than the 4 pm reading at DeKalb at 46 degrees under the clouds. Freeport, where the sun has been shining fora good part of the afternoon reached 59 degrees, while at the same time it was 53 degrees in Rockford. The ridge of high presssure responsible for the clearing to the west will try to expand it's influence farther to the east tonight, and tomorrow will bring the Stateline partly cloudy conditions. With a fair amount of sunshine on Tuesday the afternoon high temperatures are expected to be in the upper 50's. It will be pretty much the same on Wednesday, before a punch of very mild 60's comes across the area on Thursday in advance of the next cold front dropping into the area on Friday. There could be some showers later on Friday afternoon and Friday night. Then the weather gets interesting with rain showers on Saturday and the possibility of some snow and rain mixed for the area Saturday night into Sunday morning. It is too early to tell at this time if this will be a significant event for the Stateline or not. Even though if will officially be spring as of 12:32 pm cdt on Saturday, we will probably see some snow on Saturday night. It is not unusual to get a heavy wet snow this time of year. The polar vortex will settle in over Hudson Bay next week, and our region will probably see colder than average temperatures through the end of March.
By Meteorologist
Eric Nefstead
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