Brace Yourself – Spring in Illinois May Start with a Winter Storm

Are you ready for Spring? In Illinois, it appears the beginning of what is usually a cheerful and warm season will include a potentially exciting winter storm.

I have been watching this incoming low pressure system which fortunately isn't as dangerous as the one that brought historically terrible tornadoes to the Midwest late last week. If you're in Illinois, you really should pay attention to this because it looks to bring with it precipitation and that will almost certainly include quite a bit of snow.

Here's what meteorologist Travis Roberts shared this morning showing what the computer models show will start to happen starting Wednesday morning.

By the time Thursday morning, March 20th arrives, so does quite a bit of snow potentially for the northern half of Illinois.

Here's something interesting I just saw shared by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center. It shows nearly all of Illinois has a chance of severe weather for this Wednesday.

Let me add that I will be shocked if there are any major accumulations from this storm, but I also don't want to say something that Illinois weather takes as a dare.

What does the National Weather Service in Chicago have to say about this?

So far, not much. The Chicago NWS office as of today says "a midweek storm system that will bring rain, snow, wind, and thunderstorms to the area on Wednesday and Wednesday night". My guess (and that's what it is since I am not a meteorologist) is that you'll start hearing them discuss late Wednesday night into Thursday probably starting on Tuesday.

As the Old Farmer's Almanac says, Spring begins this Thursday, March 20th, too. Wouldn't it just figure that it begins with what remains of a winter storm? Time will tell if that's what ends up developing later this week.