Winter Storm Warning Issued for Chicago

A winter storm warning has been issued by the National Weather Service for Northern Illinois, Chicago, and Northwest Indiana, beginning at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning and lasting until midnight. Snow will start to fall as early as Monday evening in Chicago's southern and western suburbs, with accumulations of about an inch before the more severe weather begins.



The worst of the snow will be late Tuesday afternoon into the evening, with snow projected to fall at a rate of over an inch per hour. This will make Chicago's evening commute especially treacherous for those travelling. Last week's storm hit at around the same time, causing several businesses and local schools to close early and cancel evening activities. Many people heeded the storm's warning and stayed off the roads, making the commute much better than expected. Both O'Hare and Midway airports are expected to cancel flights Tuesday evening as the storm passes through.



Storm projections have the most snow falling around the Midway airport area, as well as the far north suburbs. The northern suburbs have endured most of the brunt of the storms that swept through the Chicago area in the last two weeks. This storm's projected totals are in the 7-10-inch range; however, forecasters are being conservative in their predictions. The last two storms were supposed to wallop the city but stayed under the 6-inch mark. Perennial WGN-TV weather expert Tom Skilling says that this will be Chicago's biggest single snowfall of the season. Amy Seeley with the National Weather Service told the Chicago Tribune that the worst part of the snow will be during rush hour Tuesday evening and cautioned against travel.



The winds will pick up while the storm moves through Chicago, creating poor visibility, but the storm won't bring bitter cold. The temperatures are expected to hover around freezing and move back up into the mid-30s and 40s as the storm leaves town. If the storm does dump the over 10 inches of snow the computer models are predicting, it will bump the area past the snowfall average we usually see this time of year. For a winter that began balmy and dry, it seems to want to leave with a reminder for Chicagoans of how nice they had it in December.