Fabulous Sunday... Then It's All Downhill into Fall

High pressure was the weather maker over all of the mid west today from a center over Illinois. There was full sunshine, low humidity, light winds, and very comfortable temperatures. The high temperature in Rockford reached 81 degrees. It will remain clear overnight with a low around 50 degrees. The center of the high will move east to West Virginia by 6 am on Sunday, but it will ridge back into Illinois and continue to dominate area weather.  So, Sunday will be sunny again with a southwesterly wind picking up to 10-15 mph in the afternoon. The temperature will reach the low 80's. with blue skies and low humidity.  Sunday is my pick day of the week.  It may be a while until we see 80 degree temperatures again with a pattern change taking place this coming week that will sweep a strong cold front across the Stateline during the mid day hours on Monday.  There is not a lot of moisture for this next system to work with, but right now it looks like there will be enough to make showers and possibly some thunderstorms.  Rainfall amounts are expected to be fairly light (around 0.25").  So this next system will not do much to put a dent in the extreme drought across northern Illinois.  Temperatures will top out in the low 70's before frontal passage on Monday.  It will be breezy and cooler with falling temperatures on Monday afternoon.  A couple of showers could linger into Monday evening, followed by gradual clearing.  It will be much cooler with a low in the low 40's.  It will be breezy with  a brisk northwesterly wind on Tuesday. Temperatures will not recover much , and may have a hard time reaching beyond the upper 50's for afternoon highs. With the ridge of Canadian high pressure overhead on Tuesday night, skies will be clear, and winds will be light, allowing for strong radiational cooling dropping temperatures to the coolest levels so far this season.  The overnight low into early Wednesday morning will be in the upper 30's with the possibility of some patchy frost in scattered low lying areas of south central Wisconsin just to the north of Rockford.