With temperatures expected to dip below freezing, gardeners who jumped the gun might want to consider covering tender vegetation, according to experts.

A system carrying moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will hit the area late Monday morning through early afternoon, bringing with it rain, sleet, freezing rain and snow.

Snow through central portions of the US is expected to ramp up Saturday, but likely won’t reach its peak until Sunday. Flood alerts are also a big concern for this system in the Midwest. With some rivers nearing flood stage, the anticipated heavy rain could take the rivers to dangerous levels.

Batten down the hatches, or at least secure lightweight objects outdoors. There’s a wind advisory in effect Wednesday.

Tuesday’s weather was one for the record books, with the mercury at O’Hare hitting 69 degrees, tying the highest temperature for March 9 set back in 1974, according to the National Weather Service. 

After numerous winter storms this month left much of the Chicago area blanketed in an entire season’s worth of snowfall and ushered in dangerously cold wind chills, warmer temperatures are expected in the coming days. But first: more snow.

This week’s killer freeze in the U.S. was no surprise. Government and private meteorologists saw it coming, some nearly three weeks in advance. And yet catastrophe happened. At least 20 people have died and 4 million homes at some point lost power, heat or water.

If winter 2021 feels epic, that’s because it has been. According to the National Weather Service, it’s been 40 years since Chicago has seen so much snow in such a short span of time.

O’Hare Airport officially notched 7.5 inches of snow but some Chicago neighborhoods got socked with more than twice that amount in the past 24 hours. 

While lake effect snow will come and go through Tuesday, the storm system, approaching from the south, is expected to reach Chicago by mid-afternoon Monday, according to the National Weather Service. 

Chicago set a new record for the coldest Feb. 14 in history, with a high temperature of just 4 degrees recorded at O’Hare Airport on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

Valentine’s Day in the Chicago area will be a dangerously chilly affair, with all of northern Illinois under a wind chill advisory issued by the National Weather Service.

Winter has arrived with a vengeance. The next 48 hours will bring a one-two punch of snow and plunging temperatures.

Parts of the Chicago area notched more than a foot of snow over the weekend. It won’t have much chance to melt, with a blast of arctic air heading our way toward the end of the week.

For the second time in a week, Chicago is digging out after a massive snowfall.

The snow is likely to hit late Saturday afternoon and intensify rapidly, with accumulations of more than six inches possible, according to the National Weather Service.