Mother Nature has her 'one..two' punch ready to go for the next 36 hours. Even though we had a little light snow early this morning, the bigger story for this afternoon is the cold. Temperatures area wide are in the single digits and wind chills are close to -10°F to -15°F! I made the mistake of not wearing gloves when walking from my car to the station and my fingers are still trying to thaw! The clouds are beginning to thin late this morning and aren't expected to move back in until late tonight. With the lack of cloud cover in place and already falling temperatures I believe we have a real good shot of lows falling below zero once the sun sets tonight. Be prepared!
Now, if the cold wasn't bad enough we've got potentially some significant snow to deal with for Friday's storm. After looking through some of the newest data this morning, it still appears likely that the heaviest of the snow will set up along the Wisconsin/Illinois border. It's in this locations totals could near well over 6"-8" of snowfall.
Winter Storm Watches continue and will likely be left for the remainder of the day. There has been some talk from the weather service to possibly upgrade to an Advisory or Warning later this evening or heading into Friday. Timing: it still appears as if the leading edge of the snow will begin to move in to northwest Illinois around 7am and spread east through the morning. The heaviest of the snow will fall during the afternoon and evening. Evening commuters may have a very slow ride, especially if one inch per hour snowfall rates are realized. This will make keeping up with clearing the snow difficult. Also, the effectiveness of salt goes down as the temperature decreases and with temperatures expected in the teens during this event this may also make it harder for road crews to keep up.
Stay with the First Warn Weather Team for all the latest information! We'll continue to post information as we receive it here on the blog, as well as facebook and twitter.
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