The first major snow storm of the new year is on its way. A Winter Storm Watch (which may be upgraded to a warning) has been issued for the entire Chicago Metro area starting Wednesday evening and will run through late Thursday. The snow is not expected to develop until after midnight, but once it does, snow will continue through Thursday into the evening and it will be heavy at times.
The snow will wind down Thursday night leaving 6-9 inches through most of the metro area, some locally higher amounts are possible due to Lake Effect snow showers that could push totals to 10-14 inches by Friday morning. This will be a light, fluffy snow and will be subject to blowing and drifting as the wind starts to increase causing hazardous travel conditions.
One final thing, as this system departs it will pull down another shot of arctic air that will send temperatures plummeting into the single digits at night and keep daytime highs in the teens with wind chill reading dropping to 10 to 20 below zero.
