Travelers getting ready for Thanksgiving trips were dealing with hazardous driving conditions as they went to the stores for supplies Saturday.
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Winter Storm Bella will bring the first, not to mention locally heavy, accumulating snow of the season for a few in the Upper Midwest, Corn Belt, and Great Lakes. O’Hare global Airport received 11.2 inches, which the NWS said made it the largest November snowfall in the city since a storm dropped 12 inches Nov. 25-26, 1895, the Tribune said. “Interstates are down to 10 miles per hour, the side streets are blocked and there’s a lot of cars in ditches everywhere”. The weather service said it’ll start off as rain and snow early Friday night, but turn into wet snow through Saturday afternoon.
“It’s a typical first snow for us, but it’s a pain in the butt”. The National Weather Service forecast 20 degrees or lower across six states from North Dakota to IL.
Snow buried Chicago’s northern and western suburbs early in the day on Saturday followed by a band of lake-effect snow moving southward through the city.
The northern IN city of LaPorte is no stranger to heavy snowfalls.
The ground is still pretty warm, but accumulation is possible, “so you’re going to want to watch for road conditions, too”, said weather service meteorologist Sara Schultz.
Jeruzal says 5 to 8 inches are expected along a corridor from Battle Creek toward Port Huron, though a few could get as much as 10 inches.
Swaths of the Midwest got a healthy dose of winter Saturday with up to 17 inches of snow hitting metropolitan Chicago, officials said.
Indianapolis was to receive 1 to 3 inches of snow.
Looking to the east and north, about 5 inches of snow had fallen on Kalamazoo in southern MI by Saturday morning, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Nathan Jeruzal.
Behind the front, temperatures fell sharply in Iowa and South Dakota.
Parts of Iowa, northwest IL and southern Wisconsin could reach zero or below, the weather service said. Colder with high temperatures in the lower 30s.
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Partly sunny but cold weather was forecast to prevail today in the Toledo area, with temperatures expected to rise only to around the freezing mark after falling into the 20s overnight.
