Friday Remains Dry Ahead of Weekend Snow Chances

The Stateline woke up to quite a chilly but seasonable start. Low temperatures for most this morning ended up in the upper teens, with Rockford being one of the few spots that landed in the low 20s. Despite the chilly beginning to our Friday, a dry end to the work week is ahead. Our skies through the afternoon will switch from partly cloudy to mostly cloudy at times. But with the sunshine we see throughout the day, highs will end up seasonable in the low to mid 30s. Thankfully, winds will be either calm or light, so wind chills won't be much of an issue unlike yesterday.

Snow showers associated with the first of two clipper systems is currently swinging across central Iowa, and will make it's way towards central Illinois this evening. Now, this clipper is going to track close enough to the viewing area that we could see a couple of flurries late this evening stretching into our Friday night. If you are going to be traveling home this evening, nothing will be in the way weather-wise will slow your travels down. Overall, expect Saturday morning to be mostly dry as mostly cloudy skies remain overhead. If you have weekend plans that have you traveling on Saturday, dry conditions remain in place with highs near average in the low 30s. Sunday will be the day, not only for the weekend but also the 7-day forecast, that brings the best snow chances.

Ahead of Sunday's snowfall, winter storm watches have already been posted for portions of Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin as of Friday morning. So far, no winter watches or warnings have been posted for northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Despite the lack of watches or advisories, accumulating snow is a possibility during the first half of Sunday. This system is another clipper system that will track into the Upper Midwest states by Saturday morning, then approaching the Stateline area 24 hours later.

Snow develops from west to east right before sunrise Sunday morning. If you have plans to head to breakfast or even church services, keep in mind that road conditions could be slippery. Models have the center of this low pressure system tracking right over the Stateline area by Sunday afternoon. This should bring slightly warmer air into the region allowing temperatures to climb into the low to mid 30s by Sunday afternoon. This will result in snow mixing in with some rain. With that in mind, the warmer temps and transition to a wintry mix should help improve road conditions by Sunday evening.

When it is all said and done, snow totals Sunday's look to remain in the 1"-3" range. The precipitation looks to taper off by the late evening on Sunday. The associated cold front will sweep through the region overnight into Monday morning bringing a chilly start to the work week. For the morning commute on Monday, any moisture still laying on the roadways could lead to a few slick spots. Wind flow at the surface following the cold frontal passage will be out of the northwest. This will allow temperatures to drop into the upper teens by the time we are waking up Monday morning.