It will be seasonably cold the next couple of days with a warm up Wednesday before temps come crashing down just in time for the weekend. Temperatures will tumble on Valentine's day as a cold front sweeps through the area but despite the arrival of colder air, there is little measurable snow in the forecast for the foreseeable future. There will be several chances for light snow or flurries over the next seven days but little in the way of accumulation expected.
The 7 day total accumulated snowfall forecast from the ECMWF (European model) squeezes out just a little over an inch between now and next Monday (top image). The GFS model forecasts just under a third of an inch. We have seen less than half the average snowfall to date at O'Hare. So far we have picked up a total of 10.7" or 13.2" below average.
Hang in there snow lovers. There is still plenty of winter left. We typically see another foot of snow or nearly 34% of our seasonal snow before spring settles in.
Snow cover seems to be expanding all around us. As of Friday, 34.1% of the contiguous US had snow cover. After the weekend blizzards in the northeast and the plains, now just under 45% of the contiguous US is reporting snow cover.
