City warmth and wind shift off the lake will help downtown Chicago and areas south to northwest IN see more of a rain, sleet and snow mixture which may last until dawn before tapering later off late Saturday afternoon, leaving windy and cold conditions for the annual Magnificent Mile Lights parade.
Advertisement
Des Moines, Iowa, Chicago, Saginaw, Michigan, and Milwaukee are among the cities that will likely receive enough snow to shovel and plow.
On Thursday several counties were issued a Winter Storm Watch for the same time frame. According to Streets Superintendent Chris Kelly, 32 crews will be sent out to spread anti-icing brine on the city’s main salt routes before the snow falls. The National Weather Service is predicting a significant snow storm in parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes on Saturday. Rain showers are not expected to develop until just after evening rush hour, slowly becoming a rain and snow mixture until becoming all snow as temperatures continue to drop overnight, dipping into the low- to mid-30s. Most of this will stick to rooftops and grassy areas.
A winter storm warning with up to 10 inches of snow is in effect in northern IL through Saturday afternoon.
In central and eastern Iowa, road conditions were deteriorating around the state Friday evening as they became covered in snow or ice. Winds of up to 25 miles per hour in a few areas will produce blowing and drifting. The highest recorded snowfall in the state was 17 inches, the weather service said. The freeze-up will occur Friday night on parts of the Plains and Saturday night in portions of the Midwest. Others will get at least 9 inches.
Heavy weekend snow is also in the forecast for parts of Wisconsin, MI and IL.
Tractor-trailers are pulling off slow-moving interstates to park for the day, said Bret Brown, a cashier at Roadway Express truck stop in Sioux Falls.
Advertisement
The storm, however, clipped the northern part of Nebraska, dropping 4 inches in Valentine and Spencer and 8 inches in Coleridge and Bloomfield. The airport had 4 inches of snow early Saturday. That will place the heaviest snow in West MI over our southern counties.
