Coldest temperatures in nearly 3 years Wednesday morning

Temperatures tumbled quickly early Wednesday, falling to the double digits below zero area wide.  Rockford officially fell to -18 degrees, our coldest morning low since the end of January, 2019.  While winds were mostly light through the morning with high pressure centered over northwest Illinois, wind chills in a few locations dropped as low as -40 degrees.  

That -40 degree wind chill occurred in Rochelle,

while the air temperature dropped to -23 degrees!  Wind chills remained below zero throughout the afternoon as temperatures struggled to climb much above 10 degrees once again.  We will see the numbers fall slightly Wednesday evening but as southwest winds increase through the night, temperatures will actually warm into Thursday morning.  The warm up will continue into Thursday afternoon with highs rising close to 30 degrees.  Another strong cold front will move through by the evening, bringing lows down to around 1 degree Friday morning and only into the mid teens Friday afternoon.