Northern Illinois to see big changes behind Tuesday evening's cold fronts

Monday marked the 9th straight day where afternoon highs landed above average. This includes the two days in the upper 50s from late last week. Now, there's no question that we will add to this tally today however, big changes are on the horizon. 

 

  

Winds will be out of the southwest and then out of the west ahead of a pair of cold fronts. Add in mixed sun from time to time and you get afternoon highs in the upper 40s, close to the 50° mark. 

Cold front #1 will pass through during the afternoon, but it's the second cold front that comes in overnight that will help spill changes into Wednesday. The cold winds that result will leave us in the upper 20s come sunrise Wednesday morning. Our daily high will be achieved early in the day as temperatures will slowly fall as we get into the afternoon. With the additional cloud cover that comes with tonight's cold front will be the slim chance for a few flurries and an isolated snow shower. 

That should last into the midday hours, with clouds gradually decreasing for the afternoon. Again, any sunshine that we see Wednesday afternoon will not have any impact on temperatures. Winds will remain rather robust out of the northwest, limiting wind chill values to the single digits. Thursday won't be as terrible cold. However, expect afternoon highs to land in the mid 20s with wind chill values being stuck in the teens for most of the afternoon.  

Northwest flow takes hold of the upper levels for the late-week days. This will send a few disturbances our way resulting in snow chances. The first arrives in a scattered fashion late Thursday evening into Thursday night. The second comes in Friday evening into the early stages of Saturday as another pair of cold fronts slides through. One of them being the one that spills in even colder air for the weekend, limiting highs to the upper teens. It's looking very likely that this bitter cold will linger into M.L.K day.