Walking in a Winter Wonderland

We got the full winter experience today with cold temperatures and snow lasting most of the afternoon.  This put us in the Winter Wonderland, and we're looking to repeat that pretty soon.  A few flurries are expected overnight, but we'll be seeing a bit more than flurries by tomorrow.

By the time we get to around 9am we'll start to see some snow move into our area, this being part of a system that'll move in from out west. It'll bring a warm front into central Illinois, which will generate instability and allow for the snowfall to occur.

Once we get towards the middle of the day we'll start to see that snow pick up a little more, allowing for snow showers similar to what we saw during the afternoon today.  This will continue on for the rest of the day, not moving out of our area until we reach the overnight tomorrow night around 3am.

 As far as accumulations are concerned, the bulk of the snow from this system will fall in west central Illinois and over in Iowa, but we'll still see a decent amount.  However, keep in mind that these are total accumulations, as in from 9am tomorrow to 3am Saturday.  Thus, by the afternoon, we may only have seen about 1.5 to 2 inches.


Areas that are near the state line will see about 2 inches total by 3am Saturday, with the southern portion of our viewing area (southern Dekalb Co, Lee Co, and Whiteside Co) looking to see near that 2.5 inch mark by 3am Saturday.

As we head into the weekend, another high pressure system will move into our area out of the northwest, which will continue the arctic air inflow into our area.  This is expected to last through much of next week, keeping the air fairly dry and allowing for few snow chances.

The only snow chances we have in the next few days will be Friday, and then towards the middle of next week when another system moves into our area.

We can expect our high temperatures to mostly be in the single digits for the next several days, with most of if not all our overnights in the negatives.  With temperatures this cold, wind chill will also play a big factor, so do be prepared to negative wind chill temperatures for the next several days.

Another thing to keep in mind these next few days, regardless of snow accumulation, is that even light amounts of snow can allow for poor road conditions.  Also, with how frigid the temperatures are, small amounts of snow can still allow for ice buildup on the streets, so be cautious when driving, ESPECIALLY at night, as black ice will will play a factor as well.