For the second time in as many nights, the Stateline finds itself under a Freeze Warning. Temperatures early Tuesday morning fell officially to 31° at the Chicago-Rockford International Airport, and believe it or not, were held up by the fact there was still a decent wind around! The winds diminish Tuesday night, making it likely that lows will be even colder than those seen 24 hours ago! For that reason, it goes without saying that tender vegetation will need to be covered once again!
We're by no means alone in shivering! Presently 21 States plus the District of Columbia are under a Frost Advisory, Freeze Watch, or Freeze Warning!
Current forecast projections suggest another freeze is likely Wednesday night into Thursday morning, at which point a steady warmup is to begin!
Though warmer times are ahead, wetter times are also foreseen! That's not the worst news in the world, though! Already, April's running nearly an inch below normal in the rainfall department, and since March 1st,, we've seen just 65% of our normal precip! We're now below normal for 2012 in the precip category! We're running at 77% the normal clip for 2012 thus far, so it's no secret that rain's not the worst thing that could happen!
Signs are strong that rain's indeed on the way, and perhaps quite a bit of it! In examining three model runs from three different meteorological agencies, the consensus there is that 2"-3", perhaps more, could come in the week ahead! The average of the National Weather Service's GFS Model, Environment Canada's GEM Model, and the Navy's NOGAPS model's Tuesday morning runs produce 3.15" of water in the next seven days! It's a number, that at least at this point, might appear to be a bit lofty, but the model consensus is noteworthy!
Flooding's not likely to be much of an issue, due to the fact that these healthy rains are not to come all at once. Rather, they'll be distributed in waves over a 4-5 day period from Friday through Tuesday!
If there's even another silver lining to the incoming wetter pattern, there will be significant relief for allergy sufferers!!
