Unseasonably Warm to Start off December

It will be partly cloudy overnight with areas of fog developing. Temperatures will be nearly steady in the middle 30's, and the wind will be a gentle east to northeast around 6 mph. It will be cloudy on Saturday with areas of fog and drizzle in the morning. Showers are possible in the afternoon, and it will be mild for December 1st with an afternoon high around 54 degrees.  The average high in Rockford on December 1st is 39 degrees.  Showers will be likely on Saturday evening, but rainfall amounts are expected to be light.  A few of those showers may linger past midnight.  A cool front across Minnesota and South Dakota will make a run at our area overnight, but is expected to come up short, and remain just to our northwest by daybreak on Sunday.  That will make for an exceptionally mild night on Saturday night.  The overnight low is anticipated to be around 50 degrees.  The average low is 24 degrees, so, the low temperature for the day will be around 26 above average.  The front may just settle as far south as Rockford during the day on Sunday capping our expected high just below 60 degrees.  On Monday an intensifying storm system will be spinning just north of North Dakota in southern Canada.  The pressure gradient around this system will be tight leading to very windy conditions over a large area of the mid west and the northern plains. The Stateline will be on the eastern side of this system at 6 am on Monday morning.  A warm front will be pushing northward from northern Illinois into southern Wisconsin.  Air from the Gulf of Mexico will flow across the area during the day making for an unseasonably warm day for December 3rd.  The high will be around 62, and there is potential that the temperature will go even higher with southwesterly winds 20 to 30 mph with higher gusts.  It will be mostly cloudy with a good chance of showers lasting into Monday night.  Passage of the cold front overnight will bring an end to the showers, and usher cooler temperatures back into the area.  It will be mostly sunny, breezy, and cooler on Tuesday with a high around 47 degrees.  Just as a matter of interest, despite a big cool down, that 47 degree reading is still about 10 degrees above average for December 4th.  The cool down will continue, though, on Wednesday when the overnight low will be back down in the upper 20's, and the high temperature will be around 41 degrees.  That will be the result of a small high traversing southern Canada tapping a little Canadian air. It will not last long, however, with the high moving rapidly eastward to Pennsylvania by early Thursday morning.  A southerly wind will develop, and afternoon temperatures will recover into the middle 40's with  a chance of showers.  More Canadian fronts will move into the area on Friday.  There will be a good chance of showers, and it will be cooler with a high only around 40 degrees.