Weather Warning from Lake County

Lake County will be affected by three separate winter weather events over the next five days.

First, forecasters expect the light fluffy snow to continue accumulating the remainder of today and overnight, with a total of around 5” (+/- 2”) of new accumulation. Winds will be light, and temperatures not as cold as they have been, but heavy snowfall rates may make for a challenging commute home this evening. Please use caution when driving.

The second evolving situation may cause serious problems later this week. There continues to be disagreement between the major forecast models, but there will be a wintry mix Thursday evening. Some indications point to a brief period of freezing rain followed by heavy liquid rain, while others indicate the likelihood of heavy freezing rain and significant ice accumulation.

Because of the divergence in the models, confidence is low in any particular solution, so we need to pay attention to the changing forecasts and be prepared for problems Thursday night into Friday. We generally look at ½” of ice as the threshold for substantial damage to trees and utility lines, so if the model that is currently anticipating more than ¾” of ice proves to be correct, we will likely be facing widespread power outages and fallen trees in the roadways on Friday morning. In addition, both the Des Plaines and Fox Rivers are nearing their action stage because of the rain last Sunday, so there is a possibility for some flooding.

We need to emphasize that the forecasters and forecast models do not yet have concurrence about what form of precipitation we can expect, and very subtle changes in the forecast can cause drastic changes in our consequences.

The third winter weather event will likely be a moderate snowfall Saturday night into Sunday, but is still far enough off that projections may change.