Chicago can expect to see snow by Friday evening, with the heaviest snowfall touching ground between late Friday night and early Saturday morning. It should wind down between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday. As the afternoon goes on, and the air cools, the rain will eventually switch over to all snow, and continue through early Saturday morning. The GFS model, for instance, is suggesting as much as 18 inches of snow in areas just southwest of Milwaukee.
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Dane County is split in half horizontally, with the northern half expected to get between 4 and 6 inches of snow. While it has brought Southern Wisconsin rain, other parts of the country are dealing with snow and tornadoes. At the same time, current soil temperatures are in the upper 40’s yet which would prevent a few of the snow from sticking. We haven’t had our first snowflakes yet this fall season, so we are a little behind on that. Wisconsin Emergency Management urges everyone to closely watch the forecast as the track of this storm is uncertain and snow total estimates could change.
The Chicago area will get its first measurable snow of the season this weekend, and it could be quite impressive. Snow in the evening will give way to partly cloudy conditions overnight. Downtown, the snow may take longer to accumulate.
A winter storm watch has been issued for much of southeast MI and the Thumb, including St. Clair and Sanilac counties. Winds will also pick up Saturday night to 10 to 20 m.p.h.
Today it was all about the sun and the gusty winds. On November 19, 2014, more than 38% of the USA was snow-covered, while Thursday that number was only 11%, mainly in the western mountains, according to the weather service.
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In the two winters prior to that and we saw 8 inches in 2012-13, and only 4 inches all winter in 2011-12. But, Sunday will see temperatures “well below freezing”, he said.
