Winter is about to get a bit snowier, colder

January's first accumulating snow hit Tuesday, totaling 1 inch at O'Hare Airport and 0.5
inches at Midway. More is due Wednesday. An upper disturbance due to reach the area
during the afternoon could build passing morning flurries into heavier snow showers -- any
one of which may produce a dusting to as much as 1 inch. Though a fraction of what can
happen this time of the year, these totals are enough to produce black ice -- hard to spot
slippery spots -- on area roads; caution is advised.
The winter storm behind the area's bursts of snowfalls is actually treating the Chicago
area comparatively kindly. Not so lucky are sections of 23 states to the east and south,
where thundery downpours are initiating flooding in the system's warm section, ice
accumulating in the mountains of Pennsylvania and significant snows likely to cripple sections
of northern New England and Canada's St. Lawrence Valley.
RARE JANUARY TORNADOES HIT IN 65-DEGREE WARMTH A YEAR AGO
Unseasonable warmth produced a rare mid-winter severe weather outbreak a year ago,
including tornadoes in Poplar Grove and Harvard in Illinois and Pell Lake and Paddock Lake in
Wisconsin.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune