Moderating Temperatures; Still No Snow

Morning everyone, 

We escaped another winter storm with no snow! Some hazards due to freezing rain, but if you took it slow this weekend you would have been A-OK! The big story with the last couple of days were the MUCH needed rain our area received. A few more systems like that and we could be close to evening out this drought that is plaguing Northern Illinois and surrounding areas. 

From the National Weather Service in Chicago: "January 14th marks the end of the first half of meteorological winter and for the second year in a row the first half of winter has started out abnormally warm with much below average snowfall. What makes these past couple starts to winter so extraordinary is how stark of a contrast they are to the previous 3 winters (2008-09, 2009-10, and 2010-11) which saw much above average snowfall and much below average temperatures." 

Follow this link for a graphical display: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=lot&storyid=91588&...

The next 7 days hold no change. After highs struggling to get out of the 20's our area should moderate back toward freezing on Tuesday through the end of the week. Long range models have shown a tendency for a pretty substantial cold air intrustion early part of next week, but it is to far away to tell how that will play out. 

Will write more later this week about the next shot at snow and cold temperatures!