Here is the current setup.  The main storm system is now moving off the eastern seaboard (about to dump on those same people who saw 20-30 inch totals out of the last storm!!!)  What is left over us is an upper level low.  That upper level low will continue to spit out light snow with some brief periods of heavy snow over the next 24 hours.  The problem is, as this system gradually moves eastward and our east coast storm system gets cranking… our winds are REALLY going to pick up. 

The image on the right shows one of our in house computer models.  The longer the arrow and the more yellow/red the arrow has the stronger the winds.  With that low on top of us currently, our winds are pretty light.  But take a look back towards Illinoise.  By 11pm we are expecting to see sustained winds close to 25 miles per hour with gusts between 30 to 40.  You take that and add some light powdery snow, and ground blizzard conditions become very possible.  If you are travelling tonight (not recommended!!)  and head west, things will just get worse as the wind picks up.

This next image shows where those high winds will be, come Wednesday morning.  Pretty much right on top of us.  While winds may not have a big impact in larger towns and cities, if you live in a rural community you can expect ground blizzard conditions with drifts between 1 to 3 feet on rural roads.  Eventually as the upper level low moves on and the big east coast snow storm heads out to sea our winds will gradually back off during the afternoon hours on Wednesday.

To add insult to injury, bitter cold temperatures will follow this system, and with fresh snow on the ground expect any clearing we see later in the week to lead towards single digit or perhaps even below zero morning lows.

But don’t worry… the clouds come back and we are tracking what could be another accumulating snowfall on Sunday! (I know… We here at channel 2 could use a break too!) – Erik Zarnitz