People fired up snowblowers and hauled out shovels Saturday after the first significant snowstorm of the season dumped as much as 20 inches of snow in parts of the Upper Midwest, blanketing a swath from South Dakota to MI.
Advertisement
The Iowa Department of Transportation was advising against travel on numerous roads throughout the state Friday night.
Far northern Wayne County could get up to 6 inches of snow before it tapers off this evening, the weather service said.
In the northern IN city of LaPorte, the storm had dropped about four inches of snow by noon Saturday.
“A lot of people complaining about it, nobody wants to be out in it”, he said. Lake effect snow is expected to follow the initial storm, with additional snowfall on Saturday evening into Sunday morning. Tractor-trailers pulled off slow-moving interstates to park for the day, said Bret Brown, a cashier at Roadway Express truck stop in Sioux Falls.
In the southern Wisconsin town of Janesville, between 10 and 20 inches of snow has fallen.
According to ABC News affiliate WLS-TV, Chicago Midway global Airport has also reported delays of almost an hour and at least 50 flights have been canceled.
Snow may be heavy at times.
Average November snow in the Windy City is only 1.4 inches, just under 4 percent of their average seasonal snow.
Winter weather advisories are posted for other parts of IL, Indiana, northwest OH and Lower MI, where somewhat lower snowfall totals are expected. Berrien County dispatch is reporting roads are slick and snow covered. By this afternoon, snow will continue to spread over the area.
In five previous strong El Niño seasons (1997-98, 1982-83, 1972-73, 1965-66, 1957-58), Chicago has picked up an average of only 23 inches of seasonal snow, which is 15.4 inches below the 1950-2015 average of 38.4 inches.
However, regions south of I-696 will could get both a mixture of rain and snow, while areas south of I-94 will see more of a wintry mix early on before the weather system switches to wet snow.
Advertisement
Heading into next week, temperatures are predicted to be in the 30s and 40s.
