First Warn Weather Team

A sprawling area of high pressure over central Canada will dominate Stateline weather for the next couple of days. Skies will be sunny in the daytime, and clear at night. Because of a fairly tight pressure gradient between the high pressure, and low pressure over the southern plains, a fairly brisk northeasterly wind will continue overnight, and on Thursday. Temperatures will drop to the middle 30's tonight with a chance of patchy frost on the north side of the Illinois/Wisconsin border. On Thursday temperatures will only rise to the middle 50's. That seems chilly because of the very warm temperatures our area had in March, but it is just about average for this time of year. A FREEZE WATCH has been posted for the entire area on Thursday night after midnight through the early daylight hours on Friday. With the Canadian high pressure nudging across the Great Lakes, the wind will diminish, and become light and variable. Skies will be clear, and with low dew point and dry soils, widespread frost will develop after midnight, and the temperature will drop to around 30 degrees by daybreak. This is significant because record breaking temperatures in the 80's in March accelerated the blossoming and leaf development of flowers, shrubs, fruit trees, and all of the native trees across all of the midwest. In fact, the development is estimated to be 4 to 5 weeks ahead of schedule. It is difficult to assess just how much damage will occur, but there will be some. So, there will be some lingering frost early on Friday morning. It will be another sunny day, and winds will be light easterly with an afternoon high near 60 degrees. On Saturday, the high will be well to our regions east moving southeast across the lower Great Lakes. It will start off sunny, and winds will become southerly allowing temperatures to recover into the middle 60's. A front approaching from the west could cause some stray showers, and possibly a thunderstorm later on in the afternoon. A shower is possible on Saturday night as the front moves through. It will be sunny on Easter Sunday with an afternoon high in the low 60's.