Serious chills tonight

Despite the sunshine in place today it's going to remain very cold this afternoon.  A continued feed of cold air from the northwest will keep temperatures rising much past the low 20s.  In fact, they may even begin to drop some later this afternoon.  Winds will become a little breezy and that will keep wind chill values today in the teens.

Tonight, the center of the arctic high will move into the Great Lakes and this will allow temperatures to bottom out very quickly once the sun sets.  It's possible you may wake up Saturday morning to single digit readings!  To make matters worse, the slightest bit of wind will put wind chills below zero.  These numbers are our in-house model wind chills by 7am Saturday.  Keep in mind that some locations could have wind chills below zero early tomorrow morning.  So if you've got an early shift or you have to let the dog out, but on the layers!  It's going to be COLD!

First glimpse of snow that fell last night

The sunshine this morning has given us a first look at the little snow that fell overnight.  Some of you didn't see any snow, some just had a dusting and others had enough to cover the streets and sidewalks.  It's pretty neat to see the little snow that did fall just to our south as the clouds continue to move out.  You can tell where there is snow because when a visible image is put into animation, the clouds move while the snow doesn't!  We'll continue with the sunshine today, but it's going to remain cold!  Wind chills in the teens this afternoon!  Thank goodness it didn't snow more!

Lunar Eclipse Saturday Morning

A total lunar eclipse will be visible across portions of the United States on Saturday morning. Although the best viewing will occur along the west coast and Alaska, we'll be able to see part of the event here in the Stateline. Roughly the upper-left quarter of the moon will start to become somewhat darker -- or reddish -- at about 6:45am. The moon will set at about 7:14am; and will be hidden from our view when the total lunar eclipse occurs over the western U.S.

What will be unusual about this lunar eclipse is that it will be happening at sunrise. So we'll have a moment where both the rising sun and the setting moon will be visible on opposite horizons. This can happen because of an optical phenomena called atmospheric refraction. When light enters the earth's atmosphere, it bends slightly (or refracts). This makes objects to appear higher in the sky than they actually are.

If you do plan on watching the event, make sure you have a good view of the west/northwest horizon and that you bundle-up out there! Temperatures will be in the single digits and teens across the area on Saturday morning. The good news is visibility should be good that morning with mostly clear skies expected.

Heavy rain possible next week; Some snow just in time for Christmas??

Next Thursday Morning

An upper level disturbance moving through the Plains late this morning will continue to bring snow to Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan by Friday morning.  While we may get a dusting or quick inch from this whatever would fall wouldn't last until Christmas.  The next big system forecast to move in would by towards the middle to end of next week with another low developing in the southwest and lifting somewhere in the Midwest.  The image on the left is the latest run of the GFS weather model which takes an area of low pressure from the panhandle of Texas/Oklahoma and lifts it northward into northern Missouri by next Thursday morning.  If this track were to hold true it would put us on the 'warm' side of the system likely leading to a good amount of rainfall by the middle of next week.  On the flip side, if it were to track a little further east and south we would be on the colder side of the low which would mean a higher chance of a mix or snow. 

Christmas Eve Morning

Looking out even further ahead in model 'la la land' - which according to Meteorologist Eric Nefstead, "It's fun to go out in model la la land sometimes" - could mean some snow just in time for Christmas.  Now before you get too excited remember this is over two weeks away and things will change, BUT if an area of low pressure were to develop in the southern Plains near Texas or Oklahoma and there be enough cold air in place keep the low to our south - kids across the Stateline could be waking up to a white Christmas.  Something we'll definitely keep tabs on in the coming weeks as we've been off to a very slow start to the snow season this year.

A Wet Start to December 31 Years Ago

Back in 1980 mild, wet weather greeted the Stateline for the first part of December. 1.10" of rain fell on this date, for a four-day total of 1.89". The daily rainfall total on the 7th was a daily record, and the third consecutive day with measurable precipitation.

Fast forward 31 years to this month: We're expecting mild weather to return by Sunday and Monday, but little in the way of precipitation. Other than a few flurries tomorrow night and a few flurries/sprinkles Monday night, the next seven days look dry.

Snow likely stays south Thursday

We haven't had a chance to get any real good snowfall under our belt and we may have to wait just a little longer now.

The next system coming in Thursday night is 'clipper' like, but it really doesn't have any surface features with it; meaning no surface low pressure.  The majority of the forcing coming with this next snow will be from the upper levels of the atmosphere as a shortwave, or upper level disturbance, moves out of Alaska.  Sometimes these upper level lows can be notorious for producing several inches of snow and it appears as though accumulating snow will be found from Nebraska through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and into Michigan.  While it's possible we could get a dusting of snow around the area, a quick one to maybe two inches of fluffy snow could fall south of I-88 after dark Thursday and into Friday morning.  Looks like our southern most counties; Lee, Ogle and DeKalb have the best chance of seeing anything accumulate. 

Baby, it's cold outside

Don't worry, I won't start singing but I will tell you we've got some serious chills this morning.  Clouds moved out just in time early this morning to allow temperatures to fall into the teens and low 20s and unfortunately at that temperature it doesn't take much of a wind to get wind chill values in the single digits. 

We did manage to get some sunshine earlier this morning but with a weak cold front coming through today, it's the first of two, the cloud cover has already started to move back in.  This will keep highs this afternoon only in the low 30s and look for those wind chills to remain in the low 20s the remainder of the day.