Drying Out Early, Accumulating Snow Possible Into Saturday

Drying Out Early:

A cold front sweeping through the region has brought a round of scattered showers into the area ahead of the morning commute. With cold air surging in behind it, areas to the north are waking up to either a wintry mix or to heavy snow. 

For the most part, this morning's activity will fall in the form of rain. However, it wouldn't surprise me if we managed to squeeze in a few wet snowflakes in some of our cooler spots. All in all, amounts will end up at a tenth of an inch or less, with chances fully coming to an close by mid-morning. The rest of the daylight hours will remain dry under a mostly cloudy sky. With winds shifting to the north and northeast, high temperatures will end up only peaking in the low to mid 40s.

Active Stretch Ahead:

Beyond today's chances, we've got quite the active stretch, including the potential for accumulating snow Friday night into Saturday. 

Most of Friday remains dry, with clouds increasing late in the day. Similar to today, a cooler east to northeast wind will place highs below the 50-degree mark. Forecast models then show our next storm system swinging in from the southern plains, landing somewhere in between N. Illinois and NE. Indiana by Saturday morning. So right off the bat, you can see that guidance doesn't really have a firm grip on the storm's track. However, precipitation type remains on track with this event beginning as a mix of rain and snow Friday evening/night.

Early Weekend Snow?:

A meteorological process known as dynamic cooling with help with the transition to wet snow as we head into early Saturday. At this moment in time, it’s a bit too early to speculate on the "how much" factor, especially with the difference in the storm's overall track this morning. 

But he likelihood for accumulating snow has been slowly increasing with each passing day. Along with the wet snow comes a rather gusty wind out of the northeast at first, then out of the northwest. Highs because of this wind will end up even cooler than today and tomorrow, with most struggling to make it out of the 30s. Clouds will decrease into Sunday, bringing the chance for mixed sunshine into the afternoon. But this break from the active pattern is short-lived as another storm system takes aim at the Stateline early next week.