Friday, December 21, 2007

Snowfall Forecast

10pm Update - The evening models are just coming in. If anything they are a little more potent and a little slower! It still appears we'll switchover in the evening...perhaps between 7 and 10pm now. The heaviest precip should be moving in at that time so it'll be like someone snapped a finger with rain one minute and an immediate changeover to snow. The going forecast seems good...won't make any changes. NWS offices going to keep the Winter Storm Watches going and will upgrade with their 4am updates. I will go ahead and put our WeatherWatch bug up on the screen late night tonight so keep it tuned to WREX for the update early Saturday morning. -ERIC

The 18z (midday) computer models are coming in which yield a stronger storm overall for Saturday. The axis of heaviest snow 6-12 inches will include Jo Daviess, western Stephenson, western Carroll, and the western half of Whiteside. Areas east will see a significantly less snow from this system. Chicagoland will be in the 1-3 inches with the far south suburbs staying mostly as rain. Rockford will be in the center of the 3-6 inch swath. Should this system deviate from its forecast course, we will need to change the snowfall forecast. Stay tuned for more information. -ERIC

4 comments:

WxLuver said...

Hello Eric! I know this is kind of jumping ahead and that your concerns are on this weekend. I heard though that there is a possable winter storm brewing up for the middle/end of next week as well. Is there any truth behind this?

Eric Sorensen said...

wxluver: Yes, we wwill remain in an active weather pattern with several lows ejecting in southwest flow. It all depends on track. However with several consecutive SW lows, each will be working with less and less cold air. A lot of times if you don't get a pattern switch for a while, temperatures will moderate. -ERIC

tony said...

Well from what I read, the NWS is calling for 1-2 inches of snow instead of 3-6. We will see.

Dom said...

Well storm went a bit to far NW. Deformation bands are usually furthur NW than models progged. It was close call though for Mississippi river but it was abit to warm as 850mb temps warmed up.