This weekend could mark the end of the bitter cold front that hit Chicago on Tuesday, as temperatures Saturday are expected to rise into the mid-teens during the afternoon and reach a high of 30 degrees Sunday.
"Sunday looks to be the warmest day of the next four or five days," said National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Donofrio. "It won't get continually warmer and warmer, but it'll be warmer than it has been."
The milder weather comes after temperatures plummeted to single digits and below zero Tuesday through Thursday, with wind chills as low as 30 degrees below, according to the weather service.
Chicago Public Schools and more than 125 school districts in the area closed Wednesday because of the dangerous wind chills. Many of those districts remained closed Thursday.
The forecast for Saturday afternoon predicts increasing clouds with temperatures reaching about 17 degrees in the afternoon, according to the weather service. Sunday's warmer forecast could be followed by some snow overnight and into Monday morning in South Chicago, Donofrio said.
Monday's forecast predicts temperatures in the high 20s, which will dip to the mid-teens Tuesday and Wednesday and then rise back up to the mid-20s Thursday.
Donofrio said the only night that could have temperatures as frigid as those of the cold front earlier this week could be Tuesday night, during which temperatures will be around zero with a wind chill of 10 below.
"It could be a pretty cold night, but it's not like the wind chills we've just had, those were anywhere from -15 to -30 degrees," Donofrio said.