Flurries will continue to fly at times into Thursday night but it’s Friday which is to see a Clipper-type system drag an attending cold front across the Chicago area.

Gusty snow showers, some with wind velocities spiking at 40 mph, are possible.

What’s more, it wouldn’t be surprising to bursts of snowfall which cut visibilities noticeably on occasion as the snow flies. Quick half inch to 1.5″ snowfalls appear possible in heavier snow showers and that snow is likely to blow around.

Saturday Snowfall

The Chicago area is then in line for a period of snow with a second system Saturday afternoon and night. The system could lay down 2-5″ of snow with some lake enhancement of the snowfall a wildcard.

Snow and cold next week

Sharply colder arctic air hits next week dropping weekly temps noticeably in the coming week. But the intensity of the cold eases in the week which follows, though a sub-normal temp trend is still anticipated.

Newer model runs have backed on the Tuesday night/Wednesday system at the moment, but we’ll keep an eye on that.

Lackluster Snow Season So Far

My WGN meteorological colleague Mark Carroll notes how lackluster seasonal snowfall has been the past 5 years through mid January–with those seasons averaging only 37% of their normal snow. Interestingly, the back half of January in those years went on to produce above normal snowfall.

We have a long way to go to break the snow drought which is in progress, but it’s interesting at least some accumulating snow has been occurring.