Whether you’re under a winter weather advisory or a winter storm warning overnight, one thing is clear: hazardous winter conditions are expected across the Chicago area in the coming hours.
A powerful storm is on the horizon for many, but there’s still plenty of uncertainty surrounding the storm’s path and what it will mean for parts of the Chicago area. Still, ice, snow and localized blizzard conditions are all possible.
Here’s the latest as the storm inches closer:
6:53 p.m.: More Schools Move to Remote Learning Ahead of Storm
Many schools across the area are moving to e-learning on Thursday, including numerous school districts in Kankakee County.
The area is expecting to see between 9-to-12 inches of snow during Thursday’s storm, and school districts in Kankakee, Manteno, Bourbonnais and Momence have already announecd that they will switch to remote learning on Thursday.
A full list of closures can be found here.
6:14 p.m.: How Much Snow Could Chicago Area See Thursday?
As a winter storm approaches the Chicago area, snowfall projections are being dialed in as the track of that system begins to take shape.
The NBC 5 Storm Team uses two different models to project the amount of snow that will fall during the storm, with the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh model (HRRR) and the High-Resolution North American model (NAM) currently showing similar tracks, but different snowfall amounts, from the system.
As things stand Wednesday afternoon, the NAM is showing a significant snowfall event across the area, with the northern suburbs seeing 6-to-8 inches of snow, the city of Chicago seeing between 7-to-9 inches, and areas in Kankakee County and northwest Indiana potentially seeing a foot or more of snow by Thursday night.
The HRRR model still shows a fairly significant snowfall for the far southern portions of the Chicago area, along with northwest Indiana, but much smaller totals in the city of Chicago and in the northern and western…