Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Central Illinois
Issued by NWS Central Illinois
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355 FXUS63 KILX 011048 AFDILX Area Forecast Discussion...Updated Aviation National Weather Service Lincoln IL 548 AM CDT Sat Nov 1 2025 .KEY MESSAGES... - The next chance for widespread rainfall will materialize by Thursday night into Friday as a cold front swings through the region. && .SHORT TERM...(Today through Sunday) Issued at 310 AM CDT Sat Nov 1 2025 An upper-level low evident on 0730z/230am water vapor imagery over Iowa will pivot southeastward across the area today. Skies will initially be partly to mostly sunny early this morning:however, as the low comes overhead and mid-level lapse rates steepen substantially, skies will become mostly cloudy by afternoon. Isolated showers will develop during peak heating, especially along/west of the I-55 corridor. As has been noted by the past few model runs, the deepest moisture will exist on the S/SE periphery of the low from the Ozarks into the Ohio River Valley. As a result, higher rain chances will focus along and south of the I-64 corridor this afternoon. Thanks to the increased cloud cover, high temperatures will remain in the upper 40s west of I-55...but will reach the lower to middle 50s east of I-57 where partial sunshine will persist longest. The low will quickly shift southeastward out of the region tonight, with just a few showers persisting south of I-70 into early evening. Once the system exits and skies partially clear, a very chilly night will be on tap...with lows mostly in the upper 20s and lower 30s. Despite a return to sunny skies, highs on Sunday will remain slightly below normal for this time of year in the middle 50s. Barnes .LONG TERM...(Monday through Friday) Issued at 310 AM CDT Sat Nov 1 2025 Quiet weather will prevail through much of the extended forecast with temperatures climbing back above seasonal normals into the middle to perhaps upper 60s Tuesday through Thursday. After that, a cold front is progged to bring the next chance for widespread rainfall by late Thursday into Friday. 00z Nov 1 GFS/ECMWF/GEM are all in excellent agreement with the speed of the front...with all solutions pushing it into the Illinois River Valley by early Friday morning...then into Indiana by late afternoon. Southwesterly flow ahead of the approaching front will bring better deep-layer moisture northward into the region, resulting in higher confidence in precip development. Due to good model agreement, have opted to raise PoPs to 40% across the board. Thanks to surface dewpoints climbing into the middle to upper 50s, GFS MUCAPE values increase to 400-600J/kg along/west of I-55 Friday morning...then to 600-900J/kg east of I-55 during the afternoon. A quick glance at the NSSL Machine Learning site even reveals a 2-5% chance for severe on Friday. Given increasing confidence for precip and the clear instability signal, have also added slight chance thunder for Friday. 00z NBM mean QPF ranges from 0.10-0.25, but think this will increase over the next few runs if current trends persist. Barnes && .AVIATION...(For the 12z TAFs through 12z Sunday Morning) Issued at 548 AM CDT Sat Nov 1 2025 Clouds will be on the increase from west to east across central Illinois this morning. 1030z/530am satellite imagery shows clouds spilling across the Mississippi River...with MVFR conditions noted further upstream along/northwest of a KSTJ to KDBQ line. HRRR/RAP depicts these low clouds shifting E/SE, but diurnally rising to low VFR by the time they reach the central Illinois terminals. Based on satellite timing tools, have introduced a 4000-foot ceiling at KPIA by 14z...then further east to KDEC/KCMI by 17z. Isolated showers will be possible along/west of I-55 this afternoon, so included a VCSH at those sites accordingly. Once the upper low responsible for the clouds pivots southeastward into the Ohio River Valley, skies will clear later this evening. Have scattered the ceiling at KPIA by 03z, then eastward to KCMI by 07z. Winds will initially be W/SW at around 5kt early this morning, then will become W/NW at 5-10kt this afternoon. Barnes && .ILX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. && $$