Warm up follows light mixed precipitation Sunday evening

 Temperatures fell a bit below average to kick off the new year, rising only into the upper teens and low 20s. Rockford reached 18 degrees by late afternoon but then warmed a little due to increasing cloud cover and a light wind. As of 10pm, the temperature is currently 19 degrees. Clouds will stick around through most of the night which will make it hard for temperatures to fall, leaving us in the teens through Friday morning.

The current stratus deck overhead isn't overly thick, and this could allow some holes in the clouds to develop by daybreak Friday. If that does happen then temperatures will drop into the low teens. As of now, the forecast low is 14 degrees. Skies will remain mostly cloudy Friday with temperatures warming into the low 20s.

It'll be a quiet start to the weekend as a quickly moving clipper system zips across the northern

Midwest. That may try to sneak out a flurry or two Saturday afternoon locally, but skies are expected to remain mostly cloudy with temperatures in the mid-20s. By late Sunday the return of warm air will be moving across the Midwest which will eventually bring temperatures into the 40s for us next week. Before that, however, could be a brief period of mixed precipitation late Sunday evening. It likely won't be much but something to keep an eye on heading into Sunday night as the possibility of some freezing rain could be in the mix for some in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Following the warm front temperatures next week will be warming through the 40s, well above the average high of 30 degrees.