Will Weather Cooperate with Palatine's Paint the Town Green celebration?

With less than a week to go before the inaugural Paint the Town Green celebration on Saturday, March 12, it's difficult to not begin looking at the weather forecast.

Northern Illinois is known for its unpredictable weather and the month of March can be the most unpredictable of them all.

Sunshine? Sure. Tornadoes? Sure. Blizzards? Sure. March is a month that has it all, from a weather perspective, anyway.

In fact, three of the 10 largest Chicago snowfalls in history occurred during March. The record high for March 12 – the day of the parade and festivities – is 81 in 1990. That sounds pretty good. The record low? One degree in 1948. Not so good.

So far the forecast from the National Weather Service is encouraging: A slight chance of rain or snow, but temperatures in the mid-40s and partly sunny. Of course it's only Monday and things could change by the weekend – for better or worse.

"There's no contingency plan," said Liz Noe of eliz events and one of the organizers of Paint the Town Green. "Rain or shine, we will have the parade. The only change would be if it were canceled because of severe weather like the blizzard [earlier this year]."

Noe said the response to the first Paint the Town Green has been tremendous. So far there are 39 entrants in the parade. She expects at least 500 individuals to be in the parade.

The parade will start at 11 a.m. at 200 E. Wood St. The route heads north at Benton Street and turns onto Colfax Street. At Brockway it heads south again and ends on Wood Street near the Metra station. The parade route can be viewed here.

Paint the Town Green is a privately funded event. The celebration will include an Irish market at the Metra station from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.