Tuesday, January 29, 2008

More Wintery Death

Man....seems worse this year.



... Winter Storm Warning remains in effect from noon today to
12 PM CST Wednesday...

A Winter Storm Warning remains in effect from noon today to 12 PM
CST Wednesday.

A strong winter storm is developing over the Central Plains. A
strong cold front associated with the storm will move into
northern Illinois this afternoon. Ahead of the front... rain
showers will develop this morning. As the front sweeps across the
region... winds will quickly strengthen to 25 to 35 mph with gusts
to 45 mph this afternoon into this evening. With the frontal
passage this afternoon temperatures will drop sharply and rain
will quickly change over to snow. The change over to snow will
occur by early afternoon across areas west of Interstate 39... and
toward mid to late afternoon across the remainder of northeast
Illinois. A brief period of sleet is also possible as the rain
changes to snow. Travel conditions will rapidly deteriorate and
become extremely hazardous across the Chicago Metro area toward
rush hour. Any residual ponding of water and slushy snow will
freeze in place... creating treacherous driving conditions. The
strong winds combined with new snowfall this afternoon and evening
will cause occasional brief whiteout conditions at
times across open areas... particularly during evening hours. Snowfall
accumulations of 1 to 3 inches are expected before the snow tapers
off after midnight tonight.

Although the snow will diminish late this evening... the concern
will transition over to dangerously low wind chills and continued
blowing snow and reduced visibilities. Low temperatures tonight
will drop to the single digits below zero across far north central
Illinois... to the single digits above zero across the remainder of
the area. Combined with continued strong winds... wind chill
readings will drop to around 20 below zero late tonight and early
Wednesday morning... with the coldest readings north of Interstate
80 where wind chills may drop as cold as 25 below zero. Blowing
and drifting snow will also affect the area into Wednesday
morning.

A Winter Storm Warning means significant amounts of snow... strong
winds and dangerously low wind chills are likely. This will make
travel very hazardous or impossible.

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