New Year's Cold Snap... Will Be Brief

A pair of weather systems over the plains are approaching from the west and northwest tonight.  The first system has pushed a warm front into the Stateline, and temperatures have risen into the low 30's across the entire area.  It is a unusual for the high temperature for the day to occur at night, but it does happen from time to time during the winter when a warm front moves in from the southwest.  It reached 32 degrees in Rockford at 10 pm under cloudy skies with a brisk southerly wind at 14 mph.  Temperatures are in the low to middle 30's to the immediate south and west of Rockford extending into eastern Iowa.  So, the high temperature on Monday will most likely occur after midnight.  Steady temperatures will hold then though daybreak.  A cold front will move across the area switching winds to the west, and then northwest.  Daytime temperatures will be in the middle 20's falling to the low 20's by 4 pm with a northwest wind 10 to 15 mph under mostly cloudy skies.  The second front further to the northwest will dissipate allowing cold air from Canada to overspread northern Illinois on New Year's Eve.  A bubble of arctic high pressure will be near Fargo, North Dakota as of 6 pm.  Northerly winds east of the high will bring in much colder air from Canada overnight.  Skies will become partly cloudy with drier air moving in, and it will be much colder with an overnight low near 4 degrees.  Wind chills could be as low as -5 around daybreak on New Year's Day.  The arctic high will move to near Omaha, Nebraska by 6 am on Tuesday morning.  Skies will be mostly sunny in Rockford, and the high temperature will only be around 13 degrees.  So, as the calendar turns over into the new year of 2013, our region will be seeing the coldest temperatures so far this season.  The high will move to near Moline, Illinois by 6 pm on Tuesday setting the stage for another cold night.  It will be mostly clear, and winds will be light.  The low will be around 3 above zero late Wednesday night.  An Alberta Clipper System over North Dakota will charge rapidly toward the southeast overnight reaching Quincy, Illinois by 6 am on Thursday morning.  The system will be moisture starved so no measurable snowfall is expected.  However, it will be mostly cloudy on Thursday, and some light snow and flurries cannot be ruled out.  The high will be near 24 degrees on Thursday.  The pattern will be changing so that the high pressure that follows in behind the departing Clipper System will not be from Canada.  It will be a bubble developing on the eastern flank of Pacific high pressure sitting over the inter mountain west.  It will slide to the southeast on Friday to Texas.  Skies will be mostly sunny with chilly temperatures on Friday with a high in the low 20's.  That cold, but not drastic.  On Saturday a couple of Canadian fronts will push in from the north.  Skies will be partly cloudy, and temperatures will continue to moderate because no frigid Canadian air will follow in behind the front.  The high on Saturday will be around 27 degrees.  The weather will be much the same on Sunday.