Get ready for summer! Officially, the season begins on Friday when the solstice arrives. This means that more of the sun’s rays are pointed toward the Northern Hemisphere. This will also be the weekend with the most daylight of any weekend in the year! On Friday, the sun will rise at 5:20 in the morning and not set until 8:36pm. This will give us 15 hours, 16 minutes, and 26 seconds of daylight to enjoy.

Compare that to the shortest day of 2013 which will arrive this December when we will only receive 9 hours and 5 minutes of daylight! Have I given you enough of a reason to make your outdoor plans for the weekend?

Well, if I have be ready for some extreme warmth. In fact, it looks like we could be seeing back-to-back 90s beginning this weekend. Quite a far cry from the upper 40s and lower 50s coming early Wednesday. If we dip into the 40s in Rockford, it would near the record for the date. But with the beginning of summer comes the serious heat this weekend. With high temperatures in the upper 80s and dewpoints in the 70s, heat index values will be in the 95-100° range!

On top of that, some scattered thunderstorms will be possible. Due to the 40% chance, and the fact that this far out I can’t assure that these will happen after the full daytime heating, I’m going to be a bit conservative with upper 80s. However, if the rain holds off until the afternoons or evenings, leaving the morning hours sunny, some lower to middle 90s will be possible! In other words, this is a HOT airmass! Welcome to summer 2013! -Eric

Posted under climate/climate change, heat wave, science, weather geek

Last night’s cool front has lead to today’s lowered high tempertures, but even our middle 70s still feel comfortable. Those middle 70s also happen to be the coolest high temps we will see for at least the next 7-10 days thanks to a heat wave that will begin to settle in as we head toward the weekend. Taking a look at the 10 day temperature trend you can see that both Saturday and Sunday are poised to top out at or even above 90° IF we can keep scattered showers and storms out of the forecast. If that rain does develop, highs will still make it into the upper 80s. That warm air mass will dominate well into next week, so find the sunscreen and dust off the bathing suits! -Greg

Posted under heat wave, weather

A cool front touched off a few thunderstorms Monday evening. But that’s on its way out and Tuesday will reveal a very nice weather pattern! High pressure will be right overhead Tuesday night and Wednesday. This will bring us highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. In fact, upper 40s may be as close as South-Central Wisconsin Tuesday night!

However, as this high pressure drifts to the East Coast this weekend, it will open up the warm air to move in from the west. The level of warmth would be enough to warrant 90s in our forecast, if we could get rid of the 30-40% chance of thunderstorms. At this point, it’s just too hard to determine when the weekend thunderstorms will occur. Should they happen in the morning hours, it will be impossible to warm into the 90s. Should we remain dry through the afternoon hours, 90s will be a sure bet. In any event, summer begins Friday and will feel like it! -Eric

Posted under heat wave, weather geek

We have gone from winter to summer in a matter of 36 hours! Yesterday morning our temps bottomed out in the low 30s with afternoon highs in the 60s. Today we started off in the 50s with highs that will eventually creep into the mid to upper 80s. We were talking about wind chills 48 hours ago, now the words “heat index” are in the forecast this afternoon with humidity bringing the feels like temps close to 90! The 80s will hang with us through the weekend and we could even see some summery storms roll on through this week as well. -Greg

Posted under heat wave, rain

Monday morning temperatures began their jump right above the freezing mark. By the time Tuesday afternoon rolls around, we will have lived through a rise of more than fifty degrees!

Thankfully for any of our farmers in the fields, the warmth will not come with showers and thunderstorms. That’s thanks to low levels of humidity. However, with time, showers and thunderstorms will become more widespread across the Upper Midwest.

On Wednesday, a cool front will stall across Central Illinois and Indiana, moving the “storm zone” south of our area. This is not a good set up for agriculture efforts downstate. But this stalled-out front will eventually move back to the north as a warm front…sparking a few thunderstorms in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin Friday and Saturday.

Then, we’ll be watching the progress of a low pressure system ejecting out of the Rockies. The Storm Prediction Center already has an area highlighted for Saturday in the Central Plains (Click here to read the technical discussion.) .

Posted under cold blast, heat wave, severe weather

We have now seen 12 out of 13 days this month where the Fahrenheit hasn’t reached our average high. As we look ahead to the next week, that trend looks to continue with highs in the 30s and occasionally low 40s. Last year on this exact same date we saw our first 80° temperature of the year, and the following week was equally as warm. Oh what a difference a year can make! -Greg

Posted under heat wave, statistics, winter weather

New information released today by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers states that Lake Michigan-Huron* water level has dipped to a new record low. Records date back to 1918. The old record of 576.05 feet was set in March of 1964. Current levels are 2 1/2 feet below the long-term average.

A warming climate and a lack of precipitation are to blame. 2012 was the warmest year on record for the Great Lakes states, contributing to increased evaporation. The significant drought which began in the winter of 2011/12 is also contributing as decreased precipitation doesn’t replenish the water that evaporates and/or flows into Lake Erie.

* Due to the fact that Lakes Michigan and Huron are at the same elevation, they are technically one large lake.

Read more from the Chicago Tribune here.

Posted under climate/climate change, heat wave, news, record weather

We will begin a slow warming process early this week that will leave us with highs in the mid to upper 40s by Friday and Saturday. This unseasonably warm weather will melt away all that is left of the snow from two and a half weeks ago, with no future snow in the 7 day forecast. We can thank a perfect combination of weather ingredients for our upcoming winter warm wave. The jetstream will retreat to the Canadian border allowing warm air to drift up toward the Stateline. Then low pressure over Texas and high pressure over the southeast coast will work together to pump gulf warmth straight into the Midwest. Starting tomorrow we could see 5 straight days at or above 40°. -Greg

Posted under First Look, heat wave, winter weather

Shortly after 1pm on December 3, 2012, thermometers rose to 69 degrees in Rockford.  This replaces the old record high of 65 degrees from 1970. What’s even more astonishing is the fact that Monday’s 69 degree reading was the warmest temperature EVER recorded in Rockford in December!  The previous warmest December temperature was 67 degrees set on December 5, 2001.

Monday’s temperatures were truly unprecedented!  Nearly all of northern Illinois had record breaking temperatures.  Many areas along the Interstate 88 corridor hit 70 degrees!

Posted under 13 Climate Authority, BBQ Alert, climate/climate change, heat wave, record weather, statistics, weather

Yesterday we saw temperatures break into the 60s across the Stateline, and our high in Rockford of 64° tied the record high set back in 1982. Today, we began on a very foggy note and have the possibility of showers and storms as the day wears on, yet we still have managed to already break the high temperature record on this date of 65° that was set back in 1970. Highs in the Dixon area have a chance at reaching as high as 70° by the time all is said and done. A reality check will set in by the weekend though with highs barely breaking 40°. -Greg

Posted under event, heat wave, news