THAWING OUT THE LAST WEEK OF FEBRUARY

FEBRUARY 22, 2025 -- What a winter-like week. Six and a half days of below freezing weather is tough any time of the year, but it's especially difficult in mid to late February as many are beginning to look forward to Spring. A major thaw is getting ready to occur as we enter the last week of February. In fact, in Carbondale the temperatures Friday morning bottomed out at four-degrees BELOW ZERO, but by Tuesday and Wednesday, temperatures in the lower 60s will be common across Southern Illinois. That's a nearly 70-degree temperature swing over the course of a week. Extreme would be an understatement.

Upper-level ridging to begin the upcoming week will shift the Jetstream near the Canadian border. With the main storm track near the Canadian border, warm air will push northward into Southern Illinois. Right now, it appears Tuesday afternoon's temperatures will likely climb to around 60, but Wednesday will be even warmer as high temperatures could even climb into the mid-60s in some locations.

The next "weather maker" will come in the form of a cold front moving through Wednesday evening. It's not a major cold front, but it's enough to kickoff a few scattered showers late Wednesday afternoon. In the wake of the front, there will be a slight cool down, but it will be nothing of note compared to the Arctic air that has plagued the region over the last week and a half. High temperatures simply drop back into the 50s by the end of the week and into next weekend.

Additionally, the pattern will be much quieter, resulting in many areas finally starting to dry out a little through the end of February and even into the first part of March.

Looking out in the long-range, there are some hints of considerably more cold air moving back in Southern Illinois sometime around the second week of March. The pattern also becomes much more active again. A large-scale storm system looks to track somewhere across the Midwest around March 4-6. Will that result in rain? Snow? Ice? There's already been some social media chatter regarding potential winter weather into March, but it's just way too early to discuss. Anything that is discussing snowfall more than seven days in advance is not a reliable source for weather information.