Winter Weather Advisory issued for Tuesday; Slick travel possible during the afternoon

 

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY has been issued for all of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin beginning at 9am Tuesday and lasting through the evening (a little later for those in southern Wisconsin).  While this isn't expected to be a big event, a couple inches of slushy snow may slow you down and cause some hazardous travel through the afternoon and evening commutes.

We wrapped up early Monday morning with some fairly active weather from Sunday night when thunderstorms, snow, sleet, hail and heavy rain all occurred!  Snowfall totals of under an inch occurred in southern Wisconsin, while the hail and sleet accumulated on driveways and sidewalks for many in northern Illinois.  Monday was greeted with plenty of fog, but both the clouds and fog did thin out towards the late afternoon and evening.  Whatever clearing has taken place, however, will soon be filled with plenty of cloud cover during the overnight and start of Tuesday.

Those traveling before sunrise, and even a little after, should have no issues weather-wise on the roads as the snow looks to move in from south to north mid to late morning.  While not an intense area of low pressure, it will have enough strength to produce a steady snow that'll take us through early to mid-afternoon when snowfall rates could come close to half an inch per hour during that time (between 11am-2pm).

Temperatures will remain either at or slightly below freezing during much of the day, warming to just a little above freezing late afternoon and evening.  As this occurs, a mixture of rain and snow, perhaps with some sleet or freezing rain, may occur south of Rockford.  Most of the precipitation should be wrapping up between 6pm and 8pm, with then mostly cloudy skies expected through Tuesday night.

Snowfall amounts will generally range between 1-3 inches area wide.  Accumulations will occur on grassy and elevated surfaces, as well as on some of the roads which may cause some slick and hazardous driving conditions during the afternoon and early evening.  And since this will be the first accumulating snowfall over one  inch (we did have a tenth of an inch of snow back on the 18th) it'll take a little time to get used to driving in the snow once again.

There are a couple more systems that'll bring us some opportunities for snowfall as we round out 2021 and welcome in 2022.  The next system arrives late Wednesday evening, with potentially a bigger storm system moving in during the first of the year.  Still a lot to be worked out with that one, so stayed tuned.