Seasonable Temperatures to Make a Long-Awaited Return Next Week

After the harshest cold stretch in over two years, temperatures will finally approach average again by early next week.

Friday afternoon, Rockford reached a high temperature of 20°. Though it was one of the warmest days the month has had to offer so far, this temperature still fell 15° shy of the daily normal high. In fact, near-normal temperatures have been incredibly scarce since February began. Through the 19^th, only two days saw high temperatures at or above normal, the most recent being February 4^th. Since then, 13 of 15 days have featured high temperature departures of -15° or lower, reaching as low as -33° back on the 14^th which resulted in the coldest high temperature on a Valentine’s Day ever recorded in Rockford. This cold stretch has resulted in the fourth coldest February to date through the 18^th on record with an average high temperature for the month sitting at only 8.4°; the average high temperature between February 5^th and 18^th is a frigid 4.8°.

 20’s returned to Rockford for the first time in 12 days on the 16^th and the gradual warming will continue to pull the Midwest out of the cold snap into early next week. Rockford is forecast to reach the lower 30’s on Sunday with 30’s also expected several days thereafter. Tuesday is expected to be the warmest day in the upcoming week with highs in the upper 30’s; lower 40’s are not even out of the question. Computer models are also trending toward a warmer-than-normal March and meteorological spring which begins on March 1^st.