Sunshine Returns, Followed By Another Chance For Dense Fog

My, my, my! If you haven't already, go outside and grab a few pictures of the beautiful wintry scenes leftover from yesterday's rime ice. It's been quite some time since I've personally seen a freezing fog/rime ice event of this magnitude. Although the threat for freezing fog is on the lower end this morning, you'll still want to to travel with caution once on the roadways. 

The thick cloud cover that stuck around with us overnight is slowly clearing out from west to east. That's all thanks to an expansive area of high pressure that is currently sitting over the central plains this morning. However, clear skies is just one of the few ingredients to formulate a conducive environment for dense fog. Another is light or calm winds, which we currently have.

Areas to the west of Rockford that have already cleared are experiencing the thickest fog on this Tuesday morning. Places like Freeport, Savanna, and Galena have been sitting under a half mile in regards to visibility for much of the morning. If you're set to travel, especially westbound, please prepare for rapid changes in visibility. As we mentioned in yesterday's post, travel with caution. To avoid accidents, give yourself enough following distance between you and other cars.

As the atmosphere mixes out, this morning's fog and cloud cover will give way to some MUCH NEEDED sunshine. Considering that it's been a whopping 10 days since the Stateline has seen a good amount of sunlight, I'd take every available second today to enjoy it. Cloud cover and another round of patchy dense fog will be quick to return as early as Tuesday evening, which will likely slow travel down for the evening commute. As temperatures fall quickly fall into the low 20s overnight, the threat for freezing fog returns. This will likely lead to the development of a few patchy slick spots Wednesday morning.