Forget Winter – NOAA’s Official Forecast for Illinois for Spring

I tend to be somewhat impatient. It's a character flaw I freely admit and embrace. That's probably why I've decided to skip the rest of winter and take a look at what the upcoming Spring will be like. There is already an official forecast from NOAA for the next season for Illinois.

I was in the middle of researching an upcoming winter system when I noticed something unexpected on the NOAA Climate Prediction Center website. It's the 3-month outlook for April, May and June of 2025. Oh, do tell me more!

First, let's look at the expected temperatures which look rather normal for Illinois.

It's the precipitation forecast that's more interesting. It's showing a very wet upcoming Spring which would be great news for farmers affected by drought as long as it doesn't keep them out of the fields too long.

How can the weather experts already know what Spring will be like in Illinois when winter isn't close to over yet?

That's a great question that I really would love to answer, but the Climate Prediction Center isn't very clear. I read it aloud to my wife, the meteorologist, and she laughed because it's so unbelievably complex, it's indecipherable (for us regular non-weather nerd humans). The only part I did understand is the part where they say it involved "30 observations from 1981-2010".

Here's my takeaway: Spring will likely be wet in Illinois and temperatures will maybe be what they normally are. All I can say is get here soon, Spring. I miss you.