New Year's Day afternoon weather update

 

Welcome to 2025! The start of the new year had quite the chill to it, despite temperatures being close to where they should be for the beginning of January. The official high for January 1st, 2025, will go down in the record books as 31 degrees. However, that was reached just after 3:30am. We spent most of the afternoon in the upper 20s, with wind chills in the low to mid-teens.

The sun did manage to make an appearance throughout the day, leading to a good amount of sunshine mid to late afternoon. But cloud cover moving back in from the west will leave skies mostly cloudy for a time through the evening. There have even been a few flurries that have developed and will persist into the evening.

The brisk northwest wind we've also experienced will soon ease, which will help some with the wind chill overnight. Wind chills will stay in the low teens through the start of Thursday. Overnight lows will fall on either side of 20 degrees.

A quick moving storm system will develop out west tonight, shifting east through the Midwest during the day Thursday. Light snow developing out ahead of the low will spread across Illinois,

reaching northern Illinois during the afternoon. The bulk of accumulating snow will be centered around central and southern Iowa, as well as west-central and central Illinois where a couple inches could fall. North of there, lighter snow amounts are expected with light snow extending up through Highway 20. Temperatures in the 20s during that time may help aid in what does come to down to stick, causing some slick conditions through the afternoon and early evening - especially on untreated surfaces. Highs on Thursday will into the upper 20s.

Strong Arctic high pressure will move in behind the departing low Friday, giving way to plenty of chills heading into the weekend. High temperatures Friday and Saturday will only warm into the low 20s, with overnight lows in the single digits.