Tom Ackerman

If you stepped outside over the last couple of days in Springfield and thought it smelled a little weird, you're not alone.

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We're wrapping up October with near record warmth and a shot of showers and storms. Expect mostly sunny skies with highs soaring to the upper 70s, low 80s Tuesday and Wednesday as a strong southwest flow gets established. A cold front sweeps in Thursday bringing increasing clouds, pm showers and storms and highs falling to the mid 70s. Heads up for active weather that could impact trick or treaters! We'll see lingering showers and even cooler highs in the 60s Friday.

Our unseasonable late October heat peaks at near record levels Wednesday with plenty of sunshine and highs on either side of 80°. An approaching cold front will ramp up cloud cover and spark a round of afternoon/overnight showers and t-showers that could impact trick or treating Thursday evening. Showers will wrap up Friday morning with the rest of the weekend dry and sunny, but we'll briefly cool down with highs in the 70s Thursday and 60s Friday.

Well dear readers, it’s OCTOBER, which means it’s time to “get spooky with it” once again. Prepare yourselves for frights beyond the comprehension of mortal beings in this edition of A Building, A Feeling, and ...

Lexington's last measurable rainfall was more than two weeks ago, and in the last thirty-two days we've had a paltry 0.22"of rain. A bone dry set up that will change up just in time for Halloween. Expect increasing clouds with showers and a few t-showers developing Thursday afternoon and continuing into the evening and overnight. Prepare those trick or treaters for wet and active weather. We'll quickly dry out Friday after a few early morning showers and the rest of the weekend looks great. Highs will fall from the upper 70s Thursday to the 60s (near normal) Friday and Saturday but bounce back to the mid to upper 70s again early next week.

Nearly 5,000 designs were submitted for a new Illinois state flag. What do you think should be on the new flag design?

We're cooling down and drying out Friday with afternoon sunshine and more seasonable highs in the mid 60s.

For those heading to the polls on Tuesday, here are some tips to help you know where to go and when in Illinois.

We're partly sunny, dry and very warm Monday with highs soaring to the mid to upper 70s. We'll do it again Tuesday with more sun, less clouds and strong south/southwest wind.