Feels Like 10 Degrees | Illinois Weather 6 PM

Good evening! I'm Aaron Jolly. And this is the Illinois Weather Podcast for Monday, February 23rd. Folks, tonight's cold is just the opening act. Right now you're feeling 25 degrees under partly cloudy skies. Enjoy the calm.. Because Illinois is about to pull off a 30 degree temperature swing in 24 hours. Tonight the bottom drops out. Northern Illinois sinks to 16 degrees. Central Illinois hits 18. Chicagoland holds near 22. That's the kind of cold where your car takes a minute to remember how to start. Then Tuesday rewrites the script entirely. Southern winds kick in hard. And by 3 P.M., northern Illinois jumps to 42 degrees. Gusts could hammer 40 miles an hour around 11 A.M., so anything loose in your yard is going on an adventure. Central Illinois steals the show though. You'll rocket to 50 degrees by 4 P.M. That's nearly 20 degrees above normal for late February. Chicagoland, you'll hit 41 by 4 P.M. With gusts to 25 miles an hour. Now the plot twist. Wednesday night into Thursday, a system slides through bringing wet snow north of I-70. Maybe a slushy inch. Not a big deal, but Thursday morning commutes could get slippery. The week ahead tells a wild story. Tuesday's warmth fades Wednesday, then temperatures climb right back into the 50s Friday. Central Illinois could touch 60 degrees Saturday. T shirt weather. In February. Let that sink in. But Sunday another system threatens snow, because this is Illinois and nothing stays comfortable for long. One more thing worth noting. Sunrise tomorrow at 6:36 A.M., sunset at 5:34 P.M. You're gaining almost three minutes of daylight every day now. Keep those winter coats by the door tonight, but maybe hang the lighter jacket where you can reach it too. You'll want both this week. That's your forecast — we'll be back tomorrow. Take care!