Incoming Snow and What to Expect

After a nice first week of Spring, Old Man Winter wants to have the final say, and he got it!  More snow is on its way to the Stateline, and many areas will be seeing some heavy bands of snowfall, which is why Winter Storm Warnings have been issued for Jo Daviess, Carroll, Whiteside, and Lee counties, with Winter Storm Watches in Stephenson, Ogle, and DeKalb counties.  These will be in effect from 7pm tonight, to Saturday 7pm.

As we head into the late evening, we'll see some lighter snowfall out west around 10pm.  A small amount of rain will be mixed in, but it'll mostly be snow.  Everyone else will stay dry for the rest of the evening, before that band of precipitation moves further in overnight.

Once we get into the overnight, we'll start to see some heavier snow move in from the west, and we can expect this around 1am.  The heavier snow will stay over the western portion of our viewing area.  The eastern half of the Stateline will see lighter snow, but that moves in later.

By 4am, we'll start to see some snow falling over the eastern portion of the Stateline.  There will be a few spots of rain mixed in, but mostly this will be snow.  Once that light snow moves out east, we hold on to this pattern through Saturday mid-day:  heavier bands of snow out west, lighter snow out east.  Once we head into the afternoon, we'll start to see the snow taper off, clearing out by 4pm.

Snow Accumulations vary heavily, with the western portion seeing more due to the heavier snow bands.  Out east, in Winnebago, Boone, McHenry, DeKalb, and the eastern portion of Ogle and Lee counties will be up to 2 inches of snow for the duration of the system.

For Stephenson, western Ogle and Lee, Whiteside, and Carroll counties, these areas will see around 4 to 4.5 inches of snow, and will also deal with some heavy bands of snowfall.

On the border between the Stateline and Iowa, these areas have chances for seeing up to 6 inches of snow since these areas will be closest to the heaviest snow band, which will be out in eastern Iowa; that area will see upwards of 8 inches. 

With these heavy snow bands moving over the western portion of the viewing area, visibility will be reduced quickly and roads will get slick fast, allowing for poor road conditions.

Along with that, strong winds will move in on Saturday, allowing for blowing snow to occur as well.


Both of these factors will keep road conditions poor during the overnight, and through Saturday morning.  If you have travel plans, you may want to hold off on them until Saturday night instead if you live in the counties that are expecting heavier snow.

The good news is, our temperatures stay mostly warm this weekend, so that snow will melt quickly.  The only time it'll freeze will be during the overnight Saturday night, as we'll dip into the mid 20's.

After the snow moves out, warmer weather returns to end the weekend and stays with us heading into the work week.  We'll have a few rain chances at the start of the work week, with drier conditions towards the middle of next week.