Recent weather in central Illinois was described as “amazing” by state climatologist Jim Angel.

“I’ve never seen a series of events like this,” he said.

The University campus has seen periods of intense snow, rain and fog in recent days, a phenomenon Angel says has been caused by extremely active cold fronts moving into the area.

Low pressure systems from the southeastern part of the country have been moving into the region, causing extreme temperature shifts in Central Illinois and a great deal of snow in the northern part of the state.

“There’s been an incredible amount of variation in Illinois weather recently,” Angel said. “On Super Bowl Sunday, for example, it was 32 degrees, there was 6 inches of snow on the ground, and there was a thunderstorm. I never would have dreamed that could have been possible.”

For local residents, the weather has been disastrous in some areas. Severe flooding was recently reported in multiple locations in Champaign.

“We have crews dealing with the snow as well as other crews that deal with the flooding,” said Tom Shuch, operations manager for the Champaign Public Works Department. “It’s difficult because we’ve had such a great amount of snow and rain lately, and all that water has got to go somewhere.”

Angel said he expects weather patters to continue fluctuating throughout February.

“That’s the thing about Illinois,” he said. “You never know when this kind of pattern is going to shift.”