Brief pocket of heavy snow this evening

8:30PM UPDATE: The heavy snow has moved off to the East and Northeast, but some flurries linger back behind. Blowing and drifting will remain a concern with the most recent snow, so expect slick spots especially on open roadways through the night and likely into tomorrow morning! Our next chance for accumulating snow will arrive Saturday morning and could last through the evening, but this will be much less intense and scattered in nature.

7PM RADAR CHECK: The back edge of the steady/heavy snow is now moving into NW Illinois. This will bring a quick end to the snowfall and greatly improve visibility. Precipitation will wind down from West to East from now through 8:30-9PM, with areas near I-39 seeing snow end near 8PM.

Road conditions from IL/WI Depts of Transportation showing many counties with mostly or completely snow-covered roads as of 6:20PM. Be sure to take it slow and allow extra time to arrive at your destination! To view the current conditions, visit https://www.gettingaroundillinois.com/WinterConditions/index.html for Illinois and https://511wi.gov/ for Wisconsin.

This is the type of rapid onset of snow you can expect to see near Rockford before 5:30PM. Note the significant drop in visibility out in Freeport, with the heavy snow limiting visibility near a mile or less for some NW of Freeport. A quick 1-3" of snow may be possible with a few-hour window from now through 9PM. 

A quick band of moderate to heavy snow has been showing up well on radar over the last few hours, but dry air near the surface limited how much reached the surface initially. Even though radar shows light snow over Rockford as of 4:20PM, we have not quite seen anything reach the ground just yet.

Out in Freeport, the steady band of snow has reached the ground just before 4:30PM. Quick drops in visibility and a coating of up to a few inches of snow may be possible within this narrow band of heavy snow.

Snow will reach the I-39 corridor as early as 5PM and will continue to spread Eastward through the evening. Drier air will wrap up precipitation as early as 9PM. Snowfall will continue over any one location for only a few hours, but up to 2-3" of snow may be possible along that narrow band.