Monday's wet and cold conditions during the day led to another problem in the evening hours -- icy roads.
The afternoon rain and slushy snow left behind dangerous black ice on area roadways as temperatures dropped into the 20s.
The Palatine and Barrington fire departments were called to several crashes on the Dundee Road Bridge over Route 14. At least two people were injured.
Icy roads also wreaked havoc in Joliet, where 13 cars were involved in a pileup on the Cass Street Bridge shortly after 6 p.m. Two people were transported to local hospitals with minor injuries. Additional crashes involving multiple cars were also reported within that same hour on the Jackson Street, Ruby Street and McDonough bridges.
The outbound Edens Expressway was shut down at Lake Avenue for a time Monday afternoon because of a serious accident involving a motorcycle, and the outbound Stevenson and inbound Kennedy expressways experienced big delays.
Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation deployed 45 trucks at 2 p.m. to salt the city's main streets and Lake Shore Drive as well as bridges, hills and overpasses.
The National Weather Service issued a special weather statement warning of icy roads for several suburban areas, and a Lake Effect Snow Advisory for several cities in Northwest Indiana predicted between 3 to 7 inches of snow overnight.
The precipitation was the first official taste of winter for the Chicago area.
Rain showers gradually mixed with snowflakes around noon in Lake and McHenry counties as temperatures began to drop. The rain-snow mix moved into Chicago around 1:30 p.m. and the system continued moving south into Indiana.
The snow is expected to taper off by Tuesday afternoon and temperatures will stay chilly with highs in the mid-30s, marking some of the coldest air for the area so far this season.
Meteorologists predicted temperatures to rise back into the 50s again by the end of the week.
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