Saturday, February 24, 2007

Ice Storm Warning in Effect

The National Weather Service in Chicago has issued an Ice Storm Warning for Ogle, Lee, and DeKalb County.

"THE WINTER WEATHER WARNINGHAS BEEN CHANGED TO AN ICE STORM WARNING. FREEZING RAIN WILL SPREAD IN FROM THE SOUTHWEST BEFORE SUNSET ANDCONTINUE THIS EVENING BEFORE TURNING TO DRIZZLE OR FREEZINGDRIZZLE LATER TONIGHT. AN ISOLATED THUNDERSTORM IS POSSIBLE.AN ICE STORM WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS AREEXPECTED OR OCCURRING. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF ICE ACCUMULATIONSWILL MAKE TRAVEL DANGEROUS OR IMPOSSIBLE. TRAVEL IS STRONGLYDISCOURAGED."

57 comments:

Anonymous said...

whereis the precep?

Anonymous said...

I don't know about the Ice but there sure is quite a snow storm here in Lee County and it just started only a half hour ago.

Anonymous said...

Snowing now!!!! How much????
Since the Blizzard warning has been taken down here, will it be taken down north of here also?

Anonymous said...

This is the same issue as with severe storm watches/warnings and hurricane watches/warnings for that matter.

The further ahead NWS can predict it the less certain the prediction is at the time they make it.

So - do they tell the public WAY ahead of time, with the possibility of having to adjust the forecast/warning before the event actually occurs?

OR, do they wait until there is more certainty & not give the public as much time to prepare?

Its a catch-22.

Anonymous said...

its not snowing in belvidere yet

Anonymous said...

Dixon here .... absolutely no precip at alll until about 4:15 here today. Has only been in the form of snow. At first large flakes but now normal size. Not much wind to speak of tho.

Anonymous said...

franklin grove snowing since 3:50 p.m. with strong wind from the east

Justin said...

very very windy and heavy snow about a mile south of 20 and a mile west of 39... not far from the airport.

Eric Sorensen said...

See? The NWS may have prematurely axed the Blizzard Warning in favor of mixed precip. The fact that you guys are reporting snow south of Rockford leads me to believe this will remain a mostly-snow event. -ERIC

Anonymous said...

Windy with blowing snow all day, just starting to snow west of Beloit, WI. NWS still has Rock Co. under a Blizzard Warning starting at 6 p.m.

Anonymous said...

2 miles east of the airport (ROCKFORD airport...I don't care what Chicago label they've put on it!)....lotsa snow, wind is mild. Local streets are now covered.

tp

Anonymous said...

here in loves park,big snow flakes and very very gusty winds blowing snow all over the place. shows how much the NWS knows. Thats why i rely on 13 for the storms.

tp said...

Wind is picking up now....swirling. Snow is increasing. Figures....I have to go out tonite, too!

tp

Anonymous said...

now here in loves park, very big snowflakes falling this shows how much the NWS knows. candace, eric and adam, you all rock.

Anonymous said...

Just started snowing here in Harvard

tp said...

Eric-
Is this storm still supposed to last thru Sunday afetrnoon?
Thx!

tp

Anonymous said...

the winter storm warning is until 6am tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

update, here in loves park, very heavy snow, can hardly see across the street. it is bad.

Anonymous said...

here in sycamore it looks nasty!! very gusty winds and big snow flakes...

Anonymous said...

snowing and very windy at lake summerset

Anonymous said...

Big flakes, big wind and flat out nasty in northwest rockford

Anonymous said...

unfortunately the latest radar models show the freezing line moving northeast toward rockford. I hope we don't get slapped with Ice

Anonymous said...

Report from Roscoe, incredibly nasty outside. It seems as if, even though it appears to be all snow, is definatley mixed with some liquid precip. I was just out and it felt like it was raining almost, however all you can see is snow... and tons of it. The blowing is crazy. It's a very exciting event for us weather lovers. I see others commenting on such big flakes. I don't recall seeing flakes quite so big. What makes that happen?

Eric Sorensen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Eric Sorensen said...

The storm has a lot of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. That combined with temperatures that are in the upper 20s and lower 30s tend to make the flakes a little bigger and heavier. If the air were drier and colder, the flakes would be smaller.

Justin said...

A few miles east of the airport just quieted down... for now.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting an answer about the large flakes. They looked like big pieces of torn paper flying through the air. The kids loved it. You guys truly are the best-- even though I am a believer in the NWS--I trust you all to get to the point and quickly. Have a great night tonight everyone! I'll be checking back all night, too excited to sleep!

Justin said...

Well I missed the news because I was driving.. took me an hour to go to cuvler's. (I know, I'm supposed to stay home). So could anyone fill me in on updated snow totals or any updates at all?

Anonymous said...

FYI -- Northwest side is getting freezing rain/sleet at 6:56p.

Anonymous said...

the forecast from 13 was 6-12 for rockford, depending on if any freezing rain or sleet mixes in.

Anonymous said...

also, i just looked outside my door here in loves park and we are getting light snow and sleet. what a mess!!

Justin said...

Alright thanks.

About to leave again... wish me luck.

Anonymous said...

Rochelle here - we now have lightening and thunder - how weird (and cool) is that?

Eric Sorensen said...

You're experiencing what is called "Thundersnow" in Rochelle! It's caused by air in the atmosphere moving upwards very rapidly...just like in a thunderstorm. Thundersnow can be very interesting because it can cause bursts of snow causing totals to rise quickly!

Justin said...

I noticed on the NWS radar that there was a little bit of yellow.... heading north towards rockford, so I'm assuming that's the thundersnow. I don't think ive ever actually seen thundersnow in person, so it should be interesting. This is like Christmas Eve, except i know my back will hurt when its all done.

Anonymous said...

how nmuch snow for belvidere

Anonymous said...

it is a thunder storm in belvidere

Anonymous said...

Loves Park- very very windy, sleet mixed with snow, was large flakes, now very thin sleet/snow. Visibility very poor. Husband out testing the roads right now! Some of us get excited over this

Anonymous said...

I will never again rely on The Weather Channel- if you were to only watch that, and not the local channels, you would have no idea the type of storm we were supposed to get this weekend. They were claiming 1-2" total. WAY OFF! I will only rely on 13 news.
Also- no thundersnow here in Loves Park/Machesney Park area yet.

Anonymous said...

Our son is at a teen retreat north of Elkhorn WI. Tried to get the leaders to come back around noon instead of staying till Sunday. They decided to stay. Now, trying to get them to stay till Monday. Hopefully, they will take our advise.

Anonymous said...

i am in loves park too, and right now we have heavy sleet and snow and can hardly see across the street again, but no lightning or thunder yet. that would be interesting to see.

Anonymous said...

The Weather Channel is so far off. We only trust the 13 Weather Team! Thanks for all of your hard work!

Anonymous said...

thats why when there are storms like this forecasted, I won't even watch the weather channel because it is almost like they don't really care because its not chicago or new york. 13news weather team is the only team i trust. adam, eric and candy rock. keep up the good work. and a few seconds ago, we just had literally a white out blizzard here. i am just off of forest hills road behind the forest hills country club.

Anonymous said...

i am starting to notice some low clouds starting to float across the sky. is that a sign of warmer air coming in now, or is that a typical snowstorm formation.

Eric Sorensen said...

I would like to thank everyone who has continued to post weather information on where you live! You have greatly helped out in figuring out exactly what is going on! All of us in the 13 Weather Center truly appreciate it! -CANDY

Anonymous said...

you are truly welcome candy. you and eric and adam made this all possible with the updating of this storm. i think now i may be getting some freezing rain because i have rain drops on my bedroom screen.

Anonymous said...

Some really heavy snow here in Harvard in the last hour. 5 inches on the ground now

Anonymous said...

now in northwest rockford it is all freezing rain. Just slammin against the windows tink,tink,tink. about an inch an hour of snow for a while now just ice pellets. Will it switch back to snow? or is this going to continue for a while? How much more snow might we receive ?

Justin said...

Ive been seeing rain for at least an hour now with a little sleet mixed in (about 2-3 miles east of the airport)

Anonymous said...

actually i think i read we might actually get dry slotted overnight with the low passing over us. what a wicked storm and we do have sleet and freezing rain now.

Anonymous said...

what is dry slotted?

Anonymous said...

its amazing. i just looked thru the blog and its amazing that on monday and tuesday we thought we would be on the warm side and get all rain. then as the week went on, the forecast started to change. thats why i read this blog. without this blog, i would have never thought we would get snow and plus watching 13 weather has helped big time.

Anonymous said...

dry slotted is when a storm like this, the low goes directly over us and wraps in dry air which cuts off the precipitation. candy or eric, if u read this, correct me if i am wrong with this.

Anonymous said...

either its just me or the weather has knocked out 13 right now. i have a blank screen. we have heavy freezing rain and gusts to almost 45mph here.

Eric Sorensen said...

You are right...our power along with the other 2 stations...went out! Freezing rain is occurring now with wind gusts near 40 MPH which is not a good combination!! Hopefully we will get power restored soon...until then I will continue to update the blog with the latest weather information as long as I can!

Anonymous said...

wrex, wtvo, and wifr are all down.

Eric Sorensen said...

You are pretty much right with the definition of a dry slot. Drier air typically wraps east or northeast into the southern most part of the storm. The low doesn't necessarily have to be going directly over us, however. This is what we're seeing now.