Forecast: Cool Sunday with potential for snow on tap

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People across the city celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with warm temperatures on Saturday, but the warm weather won’t stick around for long.

While the warm temps offered revelers a chance to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, the mild weather is not here to stay. Rain showers arriving overnight could turn to snow showers as temperatures are expected to fall into the 30s by Sunday morning.

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The pleasant weekend conditions come after a round of overnight storms brought heavy rain and strong winds to Chicagoland.

Friday’s unusually warm weather brought some of the warmest temperatures the region has seen so far for the season, but it also brought a round of powerful storms that left behind a trail of damage in the west and northwest suburbs.

The day started off unseasonably warm and conditions stayed comfortable, but windy, throughout the day before severe weather threats ramped up around 11 p.m., sparking several watches and warnings in the area.

The powerful Meteorological Spring storm system first turned winds southerly, pumping in the warmest temperatures of 2025 so far and the highest readings since last October 30 when the high reached 80 degrees.

For the most part, the storms brought damaging winds and some hail, with some areas seeing gusts as strong as 68 mph.

Non-thunderstorm wind gusts reached 40-50 mph at times Friday afternoon, prompting the issuance of a Wind Advisory. The area was also under a Red Flag Warning until midnight due to low relative humidity and strong winds, creating the potential for brush fires to spread quickly.

The system finally exited the area around 3 a.m.

Current conditions

TONIGHT: Increasing clouds & breezy. Chance of overnight rain/snow showers. Winds: WNW 5-15 mph. Low 32.

TOMORROW: Mostly cloudy & colder. Chance of AM snow showers. Winds: NNW 5-15 mph. High near 40.

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Looking ahead

High Wind Advisories are in effect across Chicagoland and last through 5 p.m. Originally High Wind Warnings had been issued, but were downgraded by the NWS around 9:15 a.m. Saturday.

By 8 a.m. Saturday, some areas around Chicagoland, like Joliet and DeKalb, had already seen gusts exceeding 20 mph.

 Non-thunderstorm high winds may include damaging gusts topping 50 mph at times Saturday.

Upper-level winds at the 500 mb level (approximately 18,00 feet) show the Chicago area beneath powerful jet stream winds—which parallel powerful ground-level southwest winds.

Stacking of powerful through tens of thousands of feet through the atmosphere permits high winds to “mix down” to the surface creating exceptionally strong gusts.

Saturday afternoon and evening looks to be a rough period across the south. Numerous significant tornadoes, long track and violent, and widespread damaging wind swaths and scattered large hail will be possible.

By Sunday, highs will be lucky to reach the lower 40s and there is a chance for some wet snow, perhaps mixed with chilly rain.  

Monday and mid to upper 60s on Tuesday.

The chance of showers and thunderstorms returns on Wednesday with highs in the 50s in the morning and falling through most of the day for the last full day of winter.

Highs on Thursday for the Spring Equinox in the mid to low 40s.