2/28 Illinois Weather 6 PM: Thunderstorms Starting 6 AM

Good evening. Illinois. I'm Aaron Jolly. Folks. Illinois is fighting itself tonight. A stalled front sliced the state clean in two today. Central Illinois hit 58 degrees. Meanwhile, up near Chicago? Thirty five. That's nearly a 30 degrees temperature split across one state. In the next 24 hours. Here's why. Warm Gulf air surged north into the midsection while a stubborn Great Lakes high shoved cold air straight down into Chicagoland. That northeast wind off Lake Michigan? It bites. Feels way colder than 35. But the cold side is winning this tug of war. Tonight, temperatures crash everywhere. Northern Illinois drops to 20 degrees. Wind chills up there fall to around 9 by early Sunday morning. The kind of cold that stings your ears in seconds. Chicago settles near 28. and Central Illinois? That 58 degrees afternoon is a distant memory. You're waking up to 26 tomorrow. Sunday stays chilly statewide. Northern Illinois tops out at 34 under sunny skies. Chicago barely reaches 30, with a few stray snow showers possible. Central Illinois climbs to a more tolerable 42 with partly sunny conditions. Now the week ahead tells a completely different story. Monday night flips the script. Gulf moisture floods back in, bringing rounds of rain Tuesday through Friday. We're talking one to two inches of rainfall across the state. Temperatures rocket into the 50s and 60s by late week. Winter fading fast. One thing I love right now. We're gaining almost three minutes of daylight every single day. Sunrise was 19 degrees:28 this morning. Sunset at 5:40. Spring equinox is just 20 days out. If you've got plans tomorrow morning, grab the heavy coat. That overnight drop sneaks up on you. That's your forecast — we'll be back tomorrow. For the extended outlook, check the latest forecast as confidence improves. Stay safe, stay prepared. and enjoy the day.