Impactful Storm Likely Late Week and Weekend, Wintry Weather Possible for the Stateline

While a few flurries and light snow showers are currently falling Tuesday evening, all eyes are watching the potential for a bigger storm system late in the week and weekend. The snow that is falling currently is not expected to accumulate and should continue to move south through 7pm/8pm. Skies will turn partly cloudy overnight with temperatures dipping into the teens and wind chills dipping around 0 degrees by sunrise Wednesday.

Wednesday will be a quiet, but windy, day with highs remaining in the upper 20s. Gusty winds continue through Thursday morning, shifting around to the south boosting temperatures into the 40s during the afternoon! We remain under a very strong wind flow in the jet stream, placing us in a more 'active zone' for wet weather through the weekend with the first parade of storm systems moving through Thursday. 

Light rain showers are likely Thursday ahead of a cold front that will pass to our east and southeast by Friday morning. This front becomes stationary during the afternoon Friday with light showers continuing during the afternoon. Mixed in with the light showers, however, may be some snow as colder air filters in from the north. Friday evening and Friday night, however, areas of freezing rain could fall. Right now a couple of our forecast models have a hefty amount of freezing rain falling and accumulating Friday night into Saturday. If that scenario plays out a significant impact to the Stateline would be likely with a prolonged period of accumulating ice, followed then by snow Saturday night. But again, that's just one forecast model. Another one places the freezing rain to the south with snow falling across northern Illinois followed by a very dry, but chilly, Saturday.

As the saying goes, 'the devil is in the details' and we won't exactly know what we'll see, or if we get anything at all, this early in the game. As we get closer to Friday and Saturday the finer details of the track, temperatures, precipitation and any accumulations will become more clear! Any plans for the weekend you'll want to pay close attention to the forecast.