It's Beginning to Look LIke a White Christmas

Sunday was a drab day across northern Illinois.  Weak weather systems dominate the weather picture, so the clouds are stubborn, and will continue to be overnight, and on through the day on Monday.  As of 10 pm CST the temperature has been stuck on 38 degrees for 8 hours in a row at the Rockford airport.  With that in mind I don't think it will get as cold tonight as I thought earlier.  Instead of the upper 20's for lows tonight, I think the temperature will have a difficult time falling below 32 degrees all night.  The wind will be light tonight and tomorrow, and the high on Monday will be in the upper 30's. Every day this month has been warmer than normal.   The weather has been mild so far in December with the temperature averaging  a little more than 12 degrees above normal.  That is a big differential.  It will not last because there is colder weather on the way for the end of the week through the weekend.  Little if any precipitation is expected through the daylight hours on Wednesday.  High temperatures will run from the upper 30's into the low 40's, and lows at night will be in the upper 20's to low 30's.  Things start to get interesting on Wednesday....  Low pressure starts to pull itself together over the panhandle of the southern plains.  A strong surface jet is in place from the southern plains northeast across southern Missouri, southeastern Illinois, into Michigan.  The low will have plenty of cold air to the north, and plenty of warm and humid air from the Gulf of Mexico to the south.  The intensifying winter storm is expected ride the thermal boundary to the northeast in an almost ideal path  (for producing heavy snow for the Stateline) across southern Illinois across east central Illinois into Michigan on Thursday.  It's a little early to call for snow fall totals while the makings for this storm are still off the Pacific NW coast, but the models have been pretty good lately on predicting major storm developments.   It is possible that this whole system may fizzle and never develop, but right now it looks like 4" to 8" of blowing and drifting snow is possible by late Thursday.  The precipitation will probably start as a rain and snow mix on Wednesday night, and change to all snow before daybreak on Thursday.  It will snow all day on Thursday, and gradually diminish to flurries on Thursday night.  The wind will gust to 35 mph, and possibly higher, blowing the snow around, reducing visibilities making driving difficult.  The high on Thursday will only be around 32 degrees, and the low Thursday night will be in the upper teens.  The rest of the week will be cold with below average temperatures.