DECEMBER'S SECOND MAJOR SNOWSTORM PACKS A WALLOP

The weekend snowstorm is almost history. Skies have cleared from the Chicago area west while the last vestiges of lake-effect snow are exiting Porter County in northwest Indiana. The early stages of the storm arrived in waves beginning pre-dawn Saturday. The storm really got it's snow-act together Saturday evening as the low pressure system began to intensify as it moved up the Ohio Valley from western Kentucky to central Ohio.

At Midway, weather observer Frank Wachowski reported that snow fell at the rate of one inch per hour for eight consecutive hours beginning Saturday evening between 7-8 p.m. until 3 a.m. Sunday. The snow then began to taper off and ended there around 7 a.m. Frank's snowfall totaled 10.1 inches. This storm, the area's second major snow system this month, produced more snow than 3-8" totals the December 4-5 storm did.

At Arlington Heights snowfall was about 5 inches. The new snow lies atop an ice-crusted 4 inch
residual snowpack making the total snow depth here around 9 inches.

While the Chicago area is digging out, this storm is now spreading its arsenal of heavy snow and ice to the northeast where areas from the lower Great Lakes to New England are expecting more than a foot of snow. South of the heavy snow, the precipitation will transition to ice and then to rain.
Steve Kahn WGN Weather Center Meteorologist