Sizing Up January Weather in Illinois

BY JIM TAYLOR FarmWeek

From 25 degrees below zero to 60 degrees. That’s how January could shake down in Illinois this year.

“Winter takes on many flavors,” said Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford during a Tuesday visit with RFD Radio. “It is by far the most interesting weather season.”

Altona in Knox County hit the 25-below-zero-mark earlier this month and you can’t rule out the mercury touching close to 60 in areas like Pope, Alexander, and Pulaski counties before the end of January.

“We can have pretty boring winters, which is what this last December was,” Ford said. “But then everything changed as the polar jet stream got knocked out of whack and became very wavy.” When that happens, weather becomes much more variable and extreme. “And that’s what we’ve had the last couple of weeks,” he said. “It’s been very cold, and we’ve had multiple winter storms.”

But on the backside of the trough that brought cold weather to Illinois is a ridge that is going to bring warmer air.

“And it looks like the milder air will stay with us into the first part of February with temperatures in the 30s, 40s and maybe even 50s,” Ford said. “We’ve suffered greatly with the cold and now it looks like we’re getting milder air on the backside of it."