We are looking at three straight days with highs in the 30s. Last time we saw that was nearly nine months ago, back in early March. Lows tonight will dip into the teens for most areas. The last time that happened was back in late February. This temperature turn down will be a temporary one. After a chilly start to the week we can look forward to a slow but steady warm up that will bring highs close to 60 by Sunday.
The longer range forecast is also mild. The 6 to 10 day outlook from the Climate Prediction Center has us outlooked Illinois for a better than 60% probability of above average temperatures for December 3rd through December 9th.
This current cold snap is not the norm this year. The record highs for the U.S. have outnumbered the record lows by a margin of 5 to 1. There have been over 32,000 record highs nationally and just over 6 thousand record lows.
