CHICAGO — Have your shovels on standby: Up to a foot of snow could be dumped on Chicago and the surrounding area Friday.
A winter weather system with an “impactful round of snow accumulation” is expected to arrive Thursday night and roll through Friday, said David King, meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
The city escaped an early week snowstorm relatively scot-free, but the upcoming weather system has Chicago squarely in its crosshairs, meteorologists said.
Eight to 12 inches of snow are forecast for Chicago as of Wednesday morning, said Accuweather meteorologist Tom Kines. Areas around the lakefront may see a bit less, he said. The snow will fall most heavily late Friday afternoon into the night, Kines said.
“No matter the way you cut it, we’re going to be shoveling snow,” Kines said. “And traveling Friday night is going to be horrendous, if not impossible.”
The National Weather Service will release its forecast for snow totals Wednesday afternoon, King said.
The snow is just the start of what bodes to be a tough weekend for Chicagoans, Kines said. High winds will blow Friday into Saturday, whipping the snow around and leaving visibility sparse and totals on the ground tough to tally, Kines said.
Temperatures on Saturday could fall into the teens, and Sunday will be “bitterly cold,” with temperatures near zero, and it could feel like 20 degrees below zero when high winds are factored in, Kines said.
The brutal weekend could break the seal on an unseasonably warm winter in Chicago, Kines said.
“There’s no mild weather returning anytime soon,” Kines said. “If there’s one silver lining out of this, we shouldn’t have to deal with any more snowstorms in the days after Friday.”
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