75% of nation shivers; city faces 3-inch snow

The brutally cold January-level arctic blast that roared into the area on 40 m.p.h. gusts,
accompanying a 12-hour 45-degree temperature plunge Sunday night, loosens its grip on
the area Tuesday -- but snow is the trade-off. Snow, likely to fall steadily over 10-12
hours and begin between 2 and 5 p.m. Tuesday, is to produce the first 3-inch-plus
accumulations of the season in Chicago and across the southern suburbs. Totals of 3 to 6
inches are expected over most of the area by the time precipitation winds down in
Wednesday's predawn hours.
It's the latest wintry assault on an area experiencing its fourth-coldest December open in
the past quarter century (since 1983).
The wintry weather isn't limited to Chicago. Thirty-six of the lower 48 states were under
winter weather advisories late Monday. Significant snows were falling in mountainous
areas outside Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Temperatures remained below zero Monday over Montana, all of the Dakotas and most of
the upper Midwest. Monday afternoon's high at Dickinson, N.D., reached only 13 degrees
below zero, setting a new record low maximum for the date.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune