CHICAGO — Scott Collis, atmospheric scientist for the Argonne National Laboratory, has just one word to describe Chicago’s upcoming weather: messy.
“I’d say it’s going to be very messy,” Collis said.
A winter weather advisory is in effect Monday through early Tuesday morning as another dusting of one inch of snow — and a thin top layer of ice — will gloss over the city, according to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
The first round of light snow and sleet will begin Monday morning, before transitioning into drizzles of freezing rain. Heavier rain, likely freezing, is expected Monday night.
More freezing rain, possibly mixed with snow, is expected on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. Rain is also likely Wednesday and Thursday.
But temperatures will be a bit balmier than they’ve been recently, with daytime highs in the 30s throughout the week and even stretching into the low 40s Thursday, according to the weather service.
Ice and freezing rain will mean slippery road conditions and could spell trouble in particular for Monday evening commuters, Collis said. The weather is ideal for “compact freezing,” Collis said.
“Since Chicago has been so cold recently, we still have a layer of cold closest to us, so when rain falls from above it turns into freezing rain,” Collis said. “People are going to get to their cars, remove what looks like rain and ends up being ice.”
In a stretch of chaotic winter weather that’s included sun dogs, bomb cyclones and filled-in rat holes, another phenomenon has fallen upon Chicago: frost quakes.
The quakes make a loud, booming or popping sound and break open lines in the ground that look like small earthquakes, according to CNN. Collis said the phenomenon is the result of rapid shifts in weather.
“Normally over the course of winter, things gradually cool, but we’ve had a sudden cooling, causing the ground to freeze quickly,” Collis said. “As the ground surface freezes quickly, it expands, resettling the soil and creating some of these quakes.”
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