Chicago braces for a round of travel-disrupting snow
The Windy City is experiencing a snowfall deficit this winter, but a big, travel-disrupting winter storm will help boost those seasonal totals into Friday night.
Snow shovels and snow blowers will be needed around cities such as Chicago, Detroit and Boston.
Part of the Chicago metro area is bracing for one of its biggest snowstorms of the winter thus far, just ahead of the weekend. Heavy snow is expected to pile up on the South Side of the Windy City Friday as a powerful late-season winter storm moves from the Plains to the Northeast, AccuWeather forecasters say.
The same storm has already been responsible for multiple days of severe weather in the South.
Chicagoland will be near the northwestern edge of a storm that may barely have enough cold air to produce snow in northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana. Rain may fall for a time. However, enough cold air should remain in place long enough to allow for plowable snow to fall mainly south of the downtown area. The expected accumulation will add to what has been a fairly paltry seasonable total for snow when compared to the historical average.
Pedestrians navigate slippery streets Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
How much snow and when?
The storm that will be responsible for the late-week snow in Chicago swung through the Southwest Wednesday after bringing more rain and lower-elevation snow to storm-weary Southern California. The storm was turning northeastward over the Mississippi Valley Thursday. This path will allow moisture from the Gulf of Mexico to be drawn in and continue to fuel an outbreak of severe thunderstorms that includes a few tornadoes.
With temperatures hovering in the 30s, the storm is likely to begin as a mixture of rain and wet snow during the midday hours. Following an afternoon of wet snow and increasing winds, driving conditions will be poor on many roads for the evening commute before the storm begins to move away Friday night.
The worst conditions are likely to be south of the city and especially in northern Indiana and over the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Motorists heading home in that direction at the end of the day are likely to face increasingly difficult travel conditions.
The amount of snow that will fall is still highly dependent on a few conditions.
"The key to who in the Chicago area gets a lot of snow, and who sees more rain at times, is the track of the storm," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Dean DeVore. The track of the storm has shifted southward by 50-100 miles, so correspondingly, the band of heavier snow has also shifted to the south.
"Some cold air pushing in from the north toward the end of the storm could also complicate the forecast, as some places that have rain or a rain and snow mix may end up going to all snow before the storm ends," DeVore said. That cold air will also lead to icy spots into early Saturday, long after the last flakes have fallen.
Currently, the AccuWeather forecast is calling for 1 to 3 inches of snow to accumulate in the city, with 6 to 12 inches just to the south and east into parts of central Illinois and northwestern Indiana. The amount of snow will drop off sharply north and west of the downtown area.
With temperatures expected to be near the freezing mark, any snow will be heavy and wet in nature, which could pose a danger to those shoveling after the event. It could also weigh down some tree limbs, causing some to snap, and potentially lead to power outages if those limbs fall onto power lines.
Where does Chicago stand for the season to date?
Despite the calendar just turning to March, a 6-inch snow event for the Windy City would make this storm the biggest of the season to date and Friday the snowiest day of the winter. The snowiest calendar day so far this season in Chicago was back on Jan. 25, when 3.6 inches was measured at O'Hare International Airport, the city’s official site used by the National Weather Service to document weather stats.
Seasonal snowfall totals through March 1 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
Overall, 17.9 inches of snow has fallen so far this season at O'Hare, which is well below the historical average through the end of February of 32.1 inches and only 56 percent of normal. By this point in 2022, 28.6 inches of snow had fallen at the airport.
A colder pattern expected to take hold across much of the northern half of the nation through the middle of March could mean additional opportunities for snow in Chicagoland in the coming weeks, according to AccuWeather's team of long-range meteorologists.
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