Saturday evening numerous accidents were reported on I-80 and areas to the south as freezing rain and freezing drizzle created hazardous conditions on roads as well as streets and sidewalks. With the 20,000-foot steering level winds flowing from the SW to NE, low pressure originating in the Texas Panhandle tracked east up the Ohio Valley, spreading a wintry mix of snow, sleet and cold rain or freezing rain from Missouri into into central and northern Illinois and northern Indiana. No sooner does this sytem’s cloud shield move east than a second look-alike low pressure system is forecast to take a similar track Tuesday and Wednesday. Early indications are this midweek storm might entrain slightly warmer air producing a period of rain in Chicago Wednesday before changing back to possible accumulating wet snow that night. A bitterly cold Canadian air mass is then expected to spread east over the Great Lakes and Midwest.
--By Paul Dailey, WGN Weather Center Meteorologist
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
