It is extremely warm out there this morning: mild air has rushed in behind a warm front and ahead of a powerful cold front. That cold front will wreak havoc from Texas north through the upper Plains states today and will not reach Chicago until after dark. Before that, temperatures will SURGE into the mid-70s this afternoon. If the thermometer hits 75, that will be a record high for the day. Skies will be partly to mostly cloudy.

Rain and thunderstorms will begin this evening and continue overnight. Tomorrow’s high temperature will occur right around midnight and drop every hour after that, basically. It will bottom out around 50F by Thursday morning (still warmer than normal, btw). Rain will turn to scattered showers tomorrow and Thursday, finally drying out completely by Thursday afternoon.

The thermometer will continue to fall, bottoming out around 39F on Sunday morning. Still no below-freezing temperature recorded yet this year…. As I mentioned on Monday, it has been a historically warm fall and that trend looks to continue into the winter. 

Tl;dr - Record WARMTH today - mid-70s. Thunderstorms, rain tonight. Gradually cooler tomorrow - 60s->50s. Showers. Cooler still by weekend.

Every Weather Text since Jan 10, 2024 is archived at this link