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NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHICAGO IL

323 AM CST THU JAN 19 2012

...DEVELOPING WINTER STORM TO BRING SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL TO

NORTHERN ILLINOIS FRIDAY AND FRIDAY NIGHT...

WINNEBAGO-BOONE-MCHENRY-LAKE IL-OGLE-LEE-DE KALB-KANE-DUPAGE-COOK-

INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...ROCKFORD...BELVIDERE...WOODSTOCK...

WAUKEGAN...OREGON...DIXON...DEKALB...AURORA...WHEATON...CHICAGO

323 AM CST THU JAN 19 2012

...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM FRIDAY MORNING THROUGH

FRIDAY EVENING...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHICAGO HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM

WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM FRIDAY MORNING THROUGH FRIDAY

EVENING.

* TIMING...SNOW IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP OVER NORTHWEST ILLINOIS

  AROUND DAYBREAK FRIDAY AND QUICKLY SPREAD ACROSS NORTHERN

  ILLINOIS...INCLUDING THE CHICAGO METRO AREA...BY LATE FRIDAY

  MORNING. THE SNOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING...

  TAPERING OFF TO LIGHT SNOW OR FLURRIES BY EARLY SATURDAY

  MORNING.

* ACCUMULATIONS...STORM TOTAL SNOW AMOUNTS IN EXCESS OF 6 INCHES

  ARE POSSIBLE.

* HAZARDS...THE HEAVIEST SNOW IS LIKELY TO FALL FROM FRIDAY

  AFTERNOON INTO EARLY FRIDAY EVENING...WHEN SNOWFALL RATES OF UP

  TO ONE INCH PER HOUR ARE POSSIBLE. ROADS WILL BECOME SNOW

  COVERED AND DIFFICULT TO MAINTAIN IF THESE SNOWFALL RATES

  MATERIALIZE. TRAVEL ACROSS NORTHERN ILLINOIS WILL BECOME

  DIFFICULT AND PERHAPS DANGEROUS.

* IMPACTS...ACCUMULATING SNOW WILL CAUSE SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED

  TRAVEL TIMES FRIDAY AND FRIDAY NIGHT. THE HEAVIEST SNOW IS

  EXPECTED TO BE FALLING DURING THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND FRIDAY

  EVENING EVENING RUSH HOUR COMMUTE. DELAYS AT CHICAGO AREA

  AIRPORTS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT

SNOW...SLEET...OR ICE ACCUMULATIONS THAT MAY IMPACT TRAVEL.

CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS

A new record high temp has been set at Midway! 

Thursday's high of 58 at the South Side site breaks the old record there of 56 set in 1981. 

Other prelim area highs: 

58 Lake front

63 Kankakee

60 Pontiac

59 Joliet/Gary

58 Lincoln Pk

58 Highland IN/Forest Park/Blue Island/Itasca

UPDATED 7:00 p.m.

A third straight day of unlimited sunshine helped send area temperatures to unseasonably lofty levels for October Saturday afternoon causing several long-standing records to fall across northern Illinois.

Most notable was the high of 90 degrees at Rockford, that not only broke the 1938 high of 88 degrees but also marked the latest in the season 90 on record at Rockford, besting the 90 degree reading on October 6, 1963 by three days.

In Chicago the mercury reached 87 degrees at  Midway Airport breakign the record of 86 degrees set there in 1949.

Officially at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport the high was 86 degrees which equalled the the record high for October 9 established in 1949.

In the Quad Cities area the high at Moline reached 89 degrees besting the previous record high of 87 degrees set back in 1938.

The 2009 Fermilab/WGN-TV Tornado and Severe Weather Seminar is to be held Saturday, April 25, at noon and repeated in its entirety at 6 p.m. We hope you can join us! The programs are free of charge, require no tickets and feature seating on a first come, first served basis. This is the 29th year we've presented our Fermilab tornado seminars, and we look forward to seeing you!

Map to Wilson Hall and Fermilab (provided by Fermilab)

Click here for full presentation descriptions for all the scheduled speakers

Click the link below for the scheduled list of speakers and topics; and look for more details about each presentation in the days ahead!
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune

Forces are coming together this evening that threatens to bring a major winter storm to
the Midwest and the Chicago area. A stunningly strong 180 m.p.h. band of jet
stream-level winds is helping generate this intense storm. This is the same system that
brought Las Vegas is biggest snowfall since 1979 and will have copious moisture to
feed it.

This evening radars are beginning to light up with returns as the storm assembles
across the Midwest. Freezing rain has developed in the St. Louis area and is being
reported in the extreme southern portion of the state. Clouds in the Chicago area
should lower and thicken this evening with precipitation expected to begin reaching the
ground in the far southwest portions of the metropolitan area by 7 or 8 p.m. and across
the rest of the area between 9 p.m. and midnight.

Significant accumulations of snow and ice are expected across the Chicago area.
Precipitation is to overspread the Chicago area from southwest to northeast late
tonight—then fall steadily, and at times heavily----through mid-morning Friday.
Strong vertical motion generated by the storm will produce thunder and lightning and
these strong updrafts will produce bursts of heavy precipitation. During thundersnow,
snow accumulation rates can exceed 2 to 3 inches per hour.

The system may seriously impact Friday morning’s rush hour. A cocktail of
precipitation is to affect the area with heavy snow and sleet north of I-80 and snow and
sleet changing to freezing rain and threatening serious ice accumulations to the south
from Pontiac and Kankakee to Rensselaer, Indiana. Local accumulations of around a
foot are possible in counties adjoining the Illinois/Wisconsin line before precipitation
winds down to sporadic flurries or snow showers later Friday morning and
afternoon---tapering off quickly to 1-5” south of I-80.

--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
--Steve Kahn, WGN Weather Center Meteorologist

Thanks to Midway observer Frank Wachowski for providing us with the actual thermograph temperature trace of the precipitous temperature fall that sent readings crashing 45 degrees in just 12 hours from a balmy 51 degrees at 8 p.m. to a frigid 6 degrees above zero at 8 a.m. Monday morning.


Chart provided by Frank Wachowski

We'd like to send out a special thank you to everyone who sent us photos from Thursday's storms -- it was an incredible batch of images that ranged from a never-before-seen "lightning behind a rainbow" snapshot to views of the approaching derecho and storm clouds from across the Chicago area.

Here's a quick shortcut to all the photos we've posted on the blog from Thursday's storm.

(Note: Due to the number of photos, it may take a minute or two for all the photos to fully load.) We hope you enjoy these photos as much as we do.
—WGN-TV Weather Center

It's that time again! Our 28th annual Fermilab/WGN-TV Tornado and Severe Weather seminars will take place on Saturday, April 5 at noon and 6 p.m. You are invited to join us and an outstanding group of speakers at the west suburban Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory off Kirk Road in Batavia.

Click the link below for more details on this exciting event, including the list of speakers and topics!