Weather

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.…

The transition from March to April brought very active weather in Illinois. Average temperatures this week ranged from the low 40s in northern Illinois to the low 60s in southern Illinois, between 2 and 8 degrees above normal. March ended between 2 and 4 degrees warmer than normal as well, which helped accelerate bloom and leafoutacross the state.
The big story this week, though, was the active storm track that brought multiple rounds – and multiple types – of severe weather across the state.…

Our last full week of March had very March-like weather, with average temperatures ranging from the high 30s in far northern Illinois to the low 50s in far southern Illinois, right around normal for this time of the year. March to date average temperatures have been 3 to 6 degrees warmer than normal; a top 10 warmest March on record so far for much of northern Illinois.
Another round of storms brought modest precipitation totals across the state this week,…

The first week of March and climatological spring was decidedly spring-like. Average temperatures ranged from the mid-30s in northern Illinois to the high 40s in southern Illinois, between 3 and 8 degrees above normal. High temperatures reached into the 60s and 70s early in the week before crashing back to the 30s and 40s. February ended 2 to 4 degrees below normal statewide, wrapping up a climatological winter season that was within 1 degree of normal statewide.…

The first week of March and climatological spring was decidedly spring-like. Average temperatures ranged from the mid-30s in northern Illinois to the high 40s in southern Illinois, between 3 and 8 degrees above normal. High temperatures reached into the 60s and 70s early in the week before crashing back to the 30s and 40s. February ended 2 to 4 degrees below normal statewide, wrapping up a climatological winter season that was within 1 degree of normal statewide.…

 
Finally, the coldest week of the year by far has come to an end. Average temperatures this week ranged from the single digits in northwest Illinois to the high 20s in southern Illinois, between 10 and 20 degrees below normal. Nighttime low temperatures regularly dipped into the single digits to well below zero, including -15 in McHenry and -12 in Freeport. Even Carbondale briefly dipped below zero this week. Maybe more impressive was the fact that several places did not get above freezing the entire week.…

Average temperatures this week were a bit closer to normal than in the first week of the month, ranging from the low 20s in northern Illinois to the high 30s in southern Illinois. February to date has been 4 to 10 degrees above normal, following the 35th coldest January on record statewide. Temperatures did flip later in the week, with nighttime lows dipping into the single digits to below zero across the state early Friday morning. …

We got a little break from winter this week, as average temperatures ranged from the low 30s in northern Illinosi to the mid-40s in southern Illinois, between 5 and 12 degrees above average. Monday brought spring-like temperatures across the state, and several places broke the 70-degree mark, including 76 degrees in Jerseyville and 70 in Charleston. In Jerseyville specifically, Monday was the earliest occurrence of a high temperature 75 degrees or higher on record, going back to the 1940s.…