Who may see snow and who could miss out

Low pressure beginning to take shape in the far southern Plains will be responsible for severe weather along the Gulf states later today and tonight and could bring snow only 70 miles away from Rockford Christmas Eve.

First, the weather for today.  The rainfall from Monday night is done, with only a little drizzle lasting through the morning.  There is snow falling in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa but that will remain west of the Stateline this afternoon.  Temperatures will hold steady in the 40's before dropping back into the 30's by this evening.  Low pressure developing in the Gulf today will track through Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and into Michigan by Wednesday night bringing rainfall up through the Great Lakes, but could also produce some accumulating snowfall in central and northeast Illinois and southeast Wisconsin.  At this point, it looks like the immediate Stateline will miss out on the snow, but travel out east may become a little tricky.  The precipitation will likely spread north mid-morning Wednesday through central and eastern Illinois as a rain/snow mix with temperatures in the mid and upper 30's.  But as low pressure strengthens and deepens by the afternoon, there may be enough lift in the atmosphere to get snow to fall just to the west of the storm track.  Right now it looks like travel along I-55 and I-57 will be impacted south of Chicago and I-94 north of the city up into southeast Wisconsin.  I-39 could see some snow, or even a mix, but at this point travel doesn't look highly impacted here.  Further downstate the interstate could become slick.  Greatest potential for snow accumulation would be along a line from Bloomington, Kankakee, Chicago & Kenosha.  And then out east into NW Indiana.

With temperatures above freezing during the event, should snow develop it would be a heavier snow.  This means the snow would have more weight and moisture with it and with temperatures above freezing the past couple of days, it would initially melt on contact.  The snow will be done by 9pm Christmas Eve night. 

Further west of Rockford there will be no accumulating snow, and maybe not even any precipitation at all - especially if the low tracks further east.  While we're less than 36 hours away, the track of the low is still uncertain.  If you're holiday plans have you traveling on Christmas Eve, especially to the east, you'll want to pay close attention to the forecast as travel could become tough during the afternoon.  After that, the next system coming in Friday night doesn't look all that impressive.  Colder air is set to arrive just in time for the New Year.