Storm Chasing Fever - Blog - Blizzard Heading for Chicago and Milwaukee
Blizzard Heading for Chicago and Milwaukee
Jan 30, 2011
The National Weather Service has issued a Blizzard Warning for most of Southeastern Wisconsin and
Northeastern Illinois for Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday evening. Meteorologists have been tracking this storm for days now as it appears the track has stabilized the past day. However, any slight deviation in the storm track could have huge implications of snow amounts.
This storm will have a 1-2 punch as the first wave moves in Monday afternoon and lasts until Tuesday morning. This will cause a 2-5 inch swatch of snow across Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. The bigger threat then comes Tuesday evening as a strong low pressure system will track from Arkansas to Western Indiana. Heavy snow will be on the backside of the low across Central and Northern Illinois, Southern Wisconsin east into Indiana and Michigan. Some areas may receive over a foot easily as the storm moves off to the east.
Strong northeast winds will help produce lake effect snow for a time as well. One important feature from this storm will be the synoptic winds which will gust to near 40 mph! Areas near the lakeshore from Milwaukee to Chicago could experience winds gusting near 50mph! This image shows very strong winds just above ground level gusting 40 to 50 mph. These winds will be easily transferred to the surface causing blizzard conditions.
On another note, meteorologists are pointing out this storm may be similar to the January 2, 1999 snow storm that crippled both cities. Stay Tuned!
January 2, 1999 Blizzard
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