10:45pm - Here is FutureTrack’s take on our snowfall. Once you factor in some lake effect for areas east of us (McHenry, Lake, Cook, DuPage)

10:00pm - Chicago airports are already being affected by the winter storm (even though the snow has been light so far in the Windy City). Southwest Airlines has cancelled almost all of their flights to and from Chicago-Midway and United Airlines is issuing travel vouchers to those with tickets scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday.

7:00pm - Light snow continues to fall over the entire area. The Rockford metro has around 0.50″ while areas to the west have seen 2-3 inches already. I expect this trend will continue overnight and ramp up toward daybreak. Will post an update when the evening models come in shortly before the 10 o’clock news. -ES

4:00pm - Winter Storm Warning in effect for Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Winnebago, Boone, McHenry, Carroll, Whiteside, Ogle, Lee, DeKalb, and Walworth Co. A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for Green and Rock Co.

Snow will fall light to moderately overnight accumulating 3-5 inches by morning. 6-8 inches will be on the ground by the early evening hours on Tuesday. Wind gusts in excess of 35mph can be expected, producing near white-out conditions. It wouldn’t take much for this storm warning to be upgraded to a blizzard warning. Conditions will be worst Tuesday afternoon and evening with open areas seeing drifts near 2 feet. Snow will taper to flurries Wednesday with some locales nearing one foot of total snowfall accumulation.

All necessary travel should be completed by early Tuesday morning as dangerous driving conditions should be expected for much of the day Tuesday.

Posted under winter storm

(6:06:22 PM) nwsbot: DVN: Davenport Municipal Air [Scott Co, IA] official nws obs reports SNOW of M1.6 INCH at 06:00 PM CST — event total so far. daily total thru 6 pm is 1.4 inches.
(6:07:19 PM) nwsbot: DVN: Dubuque Regional Airport [Dubuque Co, IA] official nws obs reports SNOW of M1.3 INCH at 06:06 PM CST — storm total…so far.

Posted under weather

This past weekend, Washington D.C. received about 25 inches of snow.  My best friend lives in D.C. and took some amazing pics around the Capital and The Mall.  You can see in one picture the weight of the snow, as it pulls an entire tree to the ground.

Pictures By: Cheryl Stimpson

And just think.. they have another 5-10 inches on the way.  Have Fun!

Posted under weather

8am Update: Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for the entire viewing area from 6pm tonight until 4am Wednesday morning.  Snow will start to accumulate early this evening and continue into Tuesday evening.  Snowfall will be light to moderate, and since the snow will last through Tuesday evening, we are seeing a total accumulation around 5-9 inches with some localized areas a bit higher.  Northwest winds will pick up to 15-25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph which will result to blowing and drifting snow Tuesday night.  Travel will likely be affected Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday Morning. 

10:20pm Update - The latest runs of the GFS and NAM are in and both are holding up very well to both initial conditions and each other. This continues to indicate our storm is progressing as expected.

7:30pm Update -  The Hydrometeorological Center’s latest QPF (how much liquid we will get) map is in. Combining the max of about .5″ with the GFS solution to our snow/water ratio of about 18:1, we get about 9″ of snow at the max just to Rockford’s southeast. Something else that I added to consideration is the depth of the Dendritic Growth Zone. This is the distance that the atmosphere is between -10 and -20 degrees. In these temperatures, snowflake growth is very efficient and results in high accumulations. Models are putting this depth around 8,000 feet at this point which is considerably deep. Considering all of these variables, I am expecting 6-10″ of snow through the majority of northern Illinois with amounts closer to a foot as you go southeast of a line from roughly Delavan, WI to Rochelle, IL

4:30pm Update -

nwsbot: MKX issues Winter Storm Watch valid at Feb 08, 6:00 PM CST for Columbia, Dane, Green, Green Lake, Iowa, Lafayette, Marquette, Sauk [WI] till Feb 10, 6:00 AM CST
nwsbot: MKX issues Winter Storm Watch valid at Feb 09, 12:00 AM CST for Dodge, Fond du Lac, Jefferson, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Rock, Sheboygan, Walworth, Washington, Waukesha [WI] till Feb 10, 6:00 AM CST

2:00pm Update - The National Weather Service office in Romeoville has now included all northern Illinois counties in a Winter Storm Watch in effect for Monday night through Tuesday night. Expect snow to overspread the area, mainly after Monday’s evening commute, and pickup in intensity through the night. Current models are suggesting a powdery snow with snow/water ratios anywhere from 15:1 to 20:1. As the low passes to our southeast on Tuesday, snow will continue and winds will increase as a tight pressure gradient approaches the area. This could create significant blowing and drifting conditions Monday afternoon and evening. East/West roads will see the most snow drifting as our northerly winds usher in much colder air for the midweek.

Posted under winter storm

Here are the latest snowfall amounts from the Mid-Atlantic snowstorm. Many records were broken for snowfall as well as accumulating Philadelphia’s second greatest snowfall on record!

11:00pm Update-

Jordan LaPier, a good family friend, was kind enough to share these pictures with us today. He lives in downtown Washington DC and says there are estimates saying it will be midweek until the city is fully dug out. He also says that roof collapses are a big concern with the immense weight of the wet snow.  We certainly appreciate the pictures and wish the best for the Mid-Atlantic coast as they try to clean up from these record setting totals.

Posted under flooding, snow

As it looks right now, the models are coming into better agreement with Tuesday’s snow. As we have gotten closer to Tuesday, the NAM (84 hours out max) is now within range of this event and is keying in on the snow as well. Here is a map of projected liquid equivalent precipitation for the country. With the cold air that will surge in behind this system, current thinking is that we may have greater than a 10:1 snow/water ratio resulting in significant snowfall!

Posted under weather

Another record snowfall is coming to the Mid-Atlantic this weekend! Between 15 and 30 inches of snow is likely around the Baltimore and Washington DC areas. Drifting may be worse in spots, along with blizzard conditions on the Jersey Shore.

For us, our next weathermaker is coming ashore along the West Coast. For those of you weather-nerds, this storm may have the classic “Panhandle Hook” meaning it will tap the Gulf of Mexico as it makes a left-turn into the Great Lakes. There is plenty of uncertainty with this one, but we now have models that suggest anywhere from 3 to 8 inches with this storm! We’ll watch it through the weekend. -ES

Posted under snow

So I have a question to ask all of you… Would you rather have 1-2” of snow, or 20-28”? I bet if we asked Washington D.C that same question, they would say 1-2 inches. But unfortunately they don’t have that choice as the system to our South has its eyes on zip code 20002. This system will slowly move closer to the East Coast later today and through Saturday. Snow has already started, planning 2-4 inches by this afternoon. Overnight is when the heavy snow begins. Some areas could see 14-20 inches. WOW! Then into Saturday the snow will start to taper off but not before it dumps another 5-9 inches. To make matters worse this will be a very wet snow, which will be capable of breaking tree limbs and causing power outages.

Posted under weather

It looks like it’s a go for launch this Sunday for the Space Shuttle Endeavour to blastoff. The shuttle is set for a 4:39 am (EST) launch and conditions look pristine with partly cloudy skies and Northwest winds around 10 mph. This will be the last predawn blastoff for NASA.
The flight will consist of a five-man and one-woman crew to fly a 13 day mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle will take a new room call Tranquility and a seven-window observation deck called Cupola.

Posted under weather

I may have mentioned this before, but Thursday is a very important day for us here at WREX! Just after the first of the year, we found out that our current weather computer system was about to be replaced. Beginning at 5pm, we will now be operating on an all-new, totally LIVE weather system. That means that everything we show you on the air (and online) will be current. Occasionally temperatures will change on the air and radar graphics will export to the web in real time. I can’t give you too much more information because we’ve got to keep it a surprise. Good for you, you won’t have to wait too long.

As for our old, tried-and-true weather system. We feel it will end up something like this:

Posted under humor