From Spring to Winter, in Late-April ...

Once again, we would like to apologize for what is about to transpire tomorrow. Trust me when I say this, I am not as pleased about getting more snow this late into the season. Especially now that we are in "prime" severe weather season. But before we talk about the "S" word, let us take a day to enjoy the beautiful sunshine we got going on today. Clouds quickly cleared out this morning leaving us with sunny skies for as far as the eye can see.

Today will feature plenty sunshine, but also blustery conditions by this afternoon. Wind gusts right now are out of the Northwest and are ranging between 25-30 mph throughout the entire region and could gust as high as 35 mph at times this afternoon. Pin down those trashcans! Temperatures today will climb into the low 60's which is right around seasonable for this time in late April.

Clouds will increase throughout the overnight hours tonight as this potent system draws closer to the region. Temperatures tomorrow morning will drop down into the upper 30's to low 40's before the event begins which will make for a chilly start to our morning.Precipitation will begin to make its way into the Stateline after sunrise and will start out as a chilly rain.

As this low pressure system tracks to the southwest and then eventually to the south of the region, winds will switch from the northwest to out of the east. This strong easterly flow will provide enough lift or forcing in the atmosphere for much colder air to feed into the system. Temperatures mid morning will climb into the low 40's before steadily dropping into the 30's as we head towards noontime.

By the time we enter the afternoon, temperatures will continue to be falling into the 30's and winds could gust as high as 35 mph at times into tomorrow evening. Model trends this morning for the most part continued to show a quick transition to snow as we head into the afternoon. With that said, there will be a period of a wintry mix before things changeover to a heavy wet snow by the early evening.

Once the transition to snow is complete, models continue to show a heavy band of snow forming from central Wisconsin into Northern Illinois. The farther north you live, the higher chance you see accumulating snow. The further south you are, the lighter snow totals will be. In fact, the prime area to watch during this event is along or north of Highway 20, this is where significant snowfall is possible.

So far, only our counties in Southern Wisconsin, Rock, Green, and Walworth, have been placed in a Winter Storm Watch. This will go into effect starting mid-morning on Saturday. As I said in my weather casts, I wouldn't be surprise if we see a few of our Northern Illinois counties placed under some sort of watch or advisory before the late-April shenanigans unfolds (later today or tomorrow morning specifically).

Biggest impacts with this system:

1. Roadways: We will definitely have to watch and see how the snow interacts with the warm ground temperatures. During our last snowstorm (April 14th where we got 2.9" of snow), it didn't take long for the snow to overcome the warm ground here in the Stateline. If it starts to stick early on into the event, roads will definitely be slick and hazardous to drive on by tomorrow afternoon and evening.

2. Winds: The winds tomorrow could also bring impacts to the Stateline during this event. Winds will begin to ramp up starting tomorrow morning and last into the evening and could top out around 35 mph at times. This along with accumulating, wet, heavy snow could cause light tree branches to snap and fall. Another thing to keep in mind with the blustery conditions is power outages.

Luckily, the combination of the Late-April sun angle and temperatures in the 50's both Sunday and Monday, will quickly aid in the melting of whatever amount of snow we get from this storm system.