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Wednesday, January 14th, 2026

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Early spring tempts mushroomers, anglers, snake fans in Illinois

A hunter holds a morel mushroom found at the bottom of Illinois. (Photos courtesy of USGS)

It sure seems like we didn’t have much winter in southern Illinois this year.
It also seemed like spring started way early. The weather patterns have definitely been different – much warmer than usual and much earlier. I was hearing from readers, friends, and colleagues and even found a few myself – spring plants and wildflowers that generally don’t emerge until late March or early April were appearing in late February and early March.

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