The gradual transition into the latter part of fall continues. Clouds and showers will extend far to the north of a low pressure system as it moves through southern Illinois during the next 24 hours. As that system moves east, a break in clouds will occur later Tuesday into Wednesday. However, clouds and warming will spread back over northern Illinois Thursday in advance of a low pressure system that will follow a track through Wisconsin. Warming southerly winds will draw milder and moisture-laden air into the southern Great Lakes with thunderstorms and heavy rains in excess of an inch likely Friday.
Back in 1930, this was the coldest Oct. 18-24 in Chicago records. That extremely cold air mass and associated west-to-northwest winds created a massive early season lake-effect snowstorm off the east end of lakes Ontario and Erie, burying Gouverneur, N.Y., and areas just south of Buffalo under four feet of snow.
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
