Dreaming of a rainy Christmas? Another warm holiday in northern Illinois could tie for the rainiest

This year’s Christmas is unseasonably warm with a high in the low 50s and forecasters predicting up to a half-inch of rain in and around Chicago, the National Weather Service reports.

Rain from central Illinois is expected to hit the northern region in the afternoon and again in the evening with winds reaching up to 30 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.

“We’re looking at the Chicago area probably upwards around three-tenths to half an inch and similar to that is expected in the Rockford area,” National Weather Service meteorologist Zachary Yack said Monday.

The wettest Christmases recorded in the region were in 1950 and 1905 with half an inch of rain, Yack said.

“We could be looking at tying the wettest Christmas on record in the Chicago area,” he said.

That’s a far cry from other parts of the Midwest like Nebraska and Minnesota, which are getting a white Christmas from a blizzard dumping up to 9 inches of snow. The rain northern Illinois will be experiencing is from the same storm system, but the rain is coming directly from central Illinois, Yack said.

Northern Illinois’ normal high temperature on Christmas Day is about 34 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. This year only makes it the warmest Christmas since 2021, which had a high of 55 degrees.

With data going back to 1872, the warmest Christmas in the area was recorded in 1982 with a high of 64 degrees. The second warmest Christmas recorded was in 2019 with a high of 57 degrees.

About 41% of the time, and including last year, the area experiences a “white Christmas,” when at least 1 inch of snow is on the ground, the National Weather Service reports.

Earlier this week, the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office issued multiple dense fog advisories from Friday until Saturday. Visibility was reduced to one-quarter of a mile or less from the dense fog.

Northern Illinois is expected to get closer to seasonable temperatures by the weekend, according to the National Weather Service. New Year’s Eve is predicted to have a high near 35 degrees, which the area averages about 33 degrees on that day.

“We’ll be gradually stair-stepping down toward typical late December and early January temperatures,” Yack said.