Jan 23 | Weather Update and Market Review

Winter has come back with a vengeance after a temporary pause. Average temperatures this week ranged from the low teens in northern Illinois to the mid-20s in southern Illinois, between 4 and 8 degrees below normal statewide. Nighttime low temperatures this week regularly dipped into the single digits, if not below zero, including -5 degrees in Rockford and -2 in Aurora. The wind was also a factor, pushing wind chill values close to -20 on a few days.

by Trent Ford, State Climatologist
ISWS PRI University of Illinois

We had another mostly dry week along with the cold. 7-day totals ranged from around half an inch in northeast Illinois to virtually nothing in southwest Illinois. January to date has been somewhat to very dry across the state, adding to what has already been a very dry start to 2026. In fact, the first two thirds of January has been the 4th driest on record in Carbondale and the 10th driest in Charleston, both of which having less than half an inch of total precipitation so far.

Looking ahead, the cold will stick around for at least another week. Temperatures will struggle to make it out of the single digits through most of the weekend, and it’s likely most of the northern half of the state will spend the rest of the month below freezing. Meanwhile, a very strong winter storm is swinging through the mid-south this weekend, bringing significant precipitation to southern Illinois. At this point, almost all of the precipitation looks to come in the form of wet snow for southern Illinois, although folks should be very weather aware this weekend as forecasts can change very quickly.

Expected snowfall totals through Monday increase as you go south, with most of central Illinois expected to pick up around 3-4 inches while areas south of Interestate 64 could see between 8 and 12 inches, with some isolated pockets of heavier snow. It will be a very good weekend to stay home and catch up on shows and some good football, unfortunately without the Bears.

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WILLAg.org radio programming for the work week ending January 16, 2026

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 Chip Nellinger of Blue Reef Agri-Marketing, Brian Stark from The Andersons, and Arlan Suderman with StoneX.

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.