tuanis

This has been a particularly challenging winter just 35 miles to your north. It has really tested me and my house. We’ve lost power twice this winter, which never happened before. For two days during the November dump (when I had a brand new week old baby in the house) and the night in late January that the deep cold was pouring in on stiff winds. December was easy peasy. The frequency of events in January tested my snowblower - I have fired it up more this season than any since I bought it four years ago and it looks like I’m not done yet. We’ve had deep snow on two occasions, the deepest being about 20”. The dangerous cold seriously tested my furnace and bank account - set a new record high gas bill. We had limited ice here thankfully, but even the big wind event Sunday had me nervous about the mature trees surrounding my house. It’s been an especially active and difficult winter. We have also had continuous snowcover since the first January event. We almost lost it during the early-Feb thaw, but managed to scrape by. I’m ready for some bare ground (just kidding!).

Great flakes, solid rates. Hope it keep up, love a sledding Sunday with the kids.

Pretty fun to watch the CC radar for this one, especially out in Iowa. Im back to sleet as the mix line just surged north through Lake County and looks to stay there for awhile. Still no raindrops. Madison through La Crosse looks to be in a good spot.

I believe it’s all rimed snowflakes up here, obviously not accumulating effectively, but probably an inch or so down. Definitely no ice to speak of and it’s not sleet anymore. It’s actually blowing and drifting a bit.

Can’t remember the last legit sleet event we had here. Not coming down too hard yet.

Watching the regional radar loop this thing looks like it'll zip through in three hours tops. It's truckin!

Coming down pretty good up here right now. At this rate we'll get a couple inches by this evening.

Somewhere around 4” and still coming down. That pushes us to around 30” for the season and counting. About 14” OTG. December was a dud, but November and January have delivered! TBD on February... will the trend continue?

Despite the great rates in this band, when I open the door I can hear a good amount of dripping from the roof which tells me we're flirting with popping above 32 up here in Lake County.

She's a beaut! The south edge of that band marks the rain/snow delineation right now. Pretty much where the HRRR has shown it.

Looks like the rain-snow line is down around I-80 at the moment. Will have to watch it dance around as the low lifts NE. Looks like it may go north of STL.

All snow now under the heavier returns as depicted by the hi-res models

I'd think based on the orientation of the setup Elgin and Libertyville would see similar amounts, no? I still don't think this will amount to much down here.

20z HRRR is teasing us border county folks with some legit snow. Puts the heaviest band from QCA > Rockford > Racine once things get going this evening.

Saw several accidents near ohare just now. Also multiple people driving with their heads out the driver side window. People need to know to use their defrosters.

Deep winter

Solid 10” or so out there. Blowing and drifting all over the place. Will get some pics when I get out there to clear things.

Pretty impressive stuff. Closing in on 3” and you can tell how this is going to drift already. Pure sugar. Love a midwinter snowstorm.

Love the positive attitude. I think you’re in a good spot. Fully expecting that band to quickly swing north and set up shop north of the border.

These fgen bands have really delivered here in the IL/WI border counties during storms the past few years. I wonder if that's just a coincidence, or maybe it has something to do with the lake. Either way, I wouldn't be surprised to see it lift a county or two further north than depicted... seems to often be the case. UMB WX, I'd keep an eye out, those death bands tend to bring the goods and stack the inches quick, especially when colder temps and the dgz are involved.

Ended up with about 4.5” OTG here in central Lake County. Overachievers are always satisfying even though it took about 10 hours to get there. Welcome back, old man winter.

Nice to have the white stuff back

Eyeballing it we’re closing in on 2” and counting. Nice flake size for the whole event so far. This is easily an over-performer for us on the northern periphery.

Roads already snow covered and a mess up here - nothing at all was pretreated as nothing was really expected. Grass is just about covered.

Really coming down up here! Surprisingly earlier than I thought and heavier than I expected. Wasn’t sure we’d get much more than flurries, but it’s accumulating well.