Winter Weather Advisory

11:45pm Update: Things aren't always as they seem! Although the current radar image suggests that the leading edge of the snow is now into the Rockford area, snow has yet to be reported on the ground. Even a bit further west in Freeport, only cloudy skies were reported at the last observation. Both Savannah and Moline, however, are reporting light snow.

The snow has been struggling to move into the area with the cold, dry air that we have in place. It's also moving further away from the area of low pressure in the southern plains that's creating the instability for this shield of precipitation over the Midwest. Although we're still under a winter weather advisory until noon tomorrow, we'll probably be on the lower end of the 2-4" of precipitation that we've been predicting. 

1:00pm Update: The snow that has been falling in Iowa has been slow to make it's way east so far this morning.  Because of this, I am going to push back the starting time of the snow.  Looks like it will now begin more towards late evening and overspread the Stateline overnight.  Still going to go with roughly around 3" to 4" across Northern Illinois with less amounts east and higher amounts to the west.  We'll continue to monitor the weather this afternoon and let you know if we see any changes. 

9:00am Update: Light snow is now beginning to fall across parts of northern Iowa this morning.  Dew points are still fairly dry across much of the Stateline and even into eastern Iowa.  Area of low pressure is now beginning to move into western Oklahoma and will continue to move east across Missouri and southern Illinois by this evening.  As it does warmer air along with a little more moisture will begin to move northward along a trough that will extend from the low into the northern Great Lakes.  Look for light snow to begin later this afternoon west of Rockford and then spread eastward through the evening, possibly impacting the evening commute.  Snow will continue through the overnight and could be moderate at times.  As of right now we're looking at anywhere between 3"- 6" of accumulation by Thursday afternoon.  Snow to water ratios will be high enough to allow some of the snow to fluff up closer to the 6" mark, especially across parts of western and northwest Illinois.  Accumulations are expected to be less across southern/southeastern Wisconsin - ranging anywhere between 1"- 3".


A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Carroll, Whiteside, Winnebago, Boone, Ogle, Lee and DeKalb Counties beginning this afternoon and lasting through Thursday morning.