May 23 | Markets and Weather Update

by Trent Ford, State Climatologist
ISWS, PRI, University of Illinois

We had quite a busy weather week. Average temperatures range from the low 50s in northern Illinois to the mid-70s in southern Illinois, between 1 and 4 degrees above normal. Nighttime low temperatures regularly dipped into the 40s statewide and even got down to the high 30s in places like Waukegan and McHenry. May average temperatures to date have been within 1 degree of normal statewide.

Multiple rounds of severe weather brought rainfall across the state. 7-day totals ranged from around three quarters of an inch in northeast Illinois to nearly 5 inches around the Quad Cities. Severe weather last Friday produced multiple tornadoes, including an EF-4 in Williamson County, and the EF-3 that caused significant damage and multiple deaths in St. Louis. The same system produced dozens of hail and wind damage reports, including over 2 inch hail in Morgan County. Not to be outdone, another storm system produced 10 tornadoes across the state on Tuesday, as well as widespread wind and hail damage and heavy rain to the Quad Cities region. As of today, Illinois leads the nation in tornadoes in 2025 with an estimate of 99.

Also noteworthy is the dust storm that affected central and northern Illinois last Friday, including Chicago. Dry soilsand strong winds created dangerous blowing dust conditions in multiple parts of the state, forcing state police to shut down parts of Interstate 74. The storm that hit Chicago was officially named a haboob, which is a very rare phenomenon for this part of the country.

Looking ahead, temperatures will remain well below normal this weekend and into early next week. High temperatures will struggle to make it out of the high 60s and low 70s statewide this weekend and on Memorial Day. We do see signs of a warm up later next week, although the week 2 outlook still shows best chances of below normal temperatures to wrap up the month of May. Precipitation this upcoming week looks to be heaviest in southern Illinois, with forecasted totals around 1 to 2 inches mostly south of I-64. Unfortunately, that leaves many in southern and south-central Illinois with another week of wetter conditions, adding to widespread fieldwork and planting delays due to consistently wet conditions stretching back to early April.

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WILLAg.org radio programming for the work week ending May 23, 2025

Commodity Week can be heard in the 2 o’clock hour central time on WILL AM580 or you may subscribe to it using the links in the player below. This week the panelists include Dave Chatterton from Strategic Farm Marketing, Joe Janzen of the University of Illinois and Nutrien Ag Solutions’ Eric Snodgrass.

The Closing Market Report airs at 2:06 p.m. central daily on WILL AM580. It, too, is a podcast. Subscribe using the link in the player.