Northern Illinois MAY see snowflakes fly this weekend

The coldest air of the season is setting it's eyes on the Stateline area this weekend. With it MAY come our first opportunity for flakes to fly. 

Keyword being "MAY". 

This comes a little behind schedule as the Rockford area typically sees it's first trace of snow around Halloween. When it comes to measurable snow, that comes around November 20th.    

A look at the weekend shows a compact system diving into Illinois from the Upper Great Plains. Now, a few things have to be hashed out before we can officially say we will see snowflakes fly. 

Of course, the storm system's track is very important when dissecting the potential for snow. But also, we need to see how much cold Arctic air is pulled in as the low slides across Illinois. 

For instance, the GFS or the American model, has a lot more Arctic air wrapping into the low, resulting in a higher chance for wintry weather. The other global model, the European model, is slower with the incoming Arctic air, leaving us with mostly rain. For now, we will leave a chance for rain late Saturday into Saturday night, with the possibility for a few flakes to mix in as we transition into Sunday morning.