A Cool & Windy Wednesday Ahead of Late Week Sunshine

As of a result of yesterday's cold front, a cooler and cloudy day is on tap for our Wednesday. On top of the cooler and cloudy conditions, the windy conditions that we felt throughout the morning are set to stick around into our afternoon. It all has to do with two systems, the low to our northeast, and the area of high pressure to our southwest. These two systems are still relatively close to one another and is causing the pressure at the surface to tighten up. When you have a tight pressure gradient at the surface, your winds and your wind gusts become stronger.

It's been a windy start to this "hump day" as winds throughout the morning have been sustained between 10-20 mph, wind gusts even higher. The Rockford International Airport has recorded a 30 mph wind gust a few times already this morning. Northwesterly winds today will continue to gusts as high as 30 mph into the late afternoon hours. You can also feel the "chill" that these strong winds have added, with temperatures feeling like they’re in the upper 30s to low 40s.

Highs today will hover around the 50 degree mark. If you’re keeping track of how below average that is, that’s about 15 degrees below our average high. If you are tired of the cooler weather, have no fear. A change is on the way. As this area of low pressure continues to depart to the northeast, winds should gradually ease by this evening. While the gusty winds come to an end, a breeze of between 5 and 10 MPH is likely overnight  and that should help prevent widespread frost development tomorrow morning. However, patchy frost is still possible by the time we wake up and head out the door for our Thursday.

Low temperatures tonight under gradually clearing skies and these light winds look to fall into the mid to upper 30s. As you make your way out the door tomorrow morning, make sure to dress warmly. This dry stretch of weather continues into our Thursday as high pressure slides into the Stateline. In other words, tomorrow is going to be a beautiful fall day across the region. As the week progresses, you may notice temperatures start to inch up daily. Highs Thursday climb into the mid to upper 50s. That is still below average, but given how windy and cool today is going to be, doubtful there are many complaints. By Friday, highs climb into the lower 60’s and stay that way into our Saturday as well.