Yesterday evening, an arctic cold front blew through my hometown and much of the Midwest allowing for a 40 degree 24hr temperature drop in some areas. Temperatures began in the 50's during the day, but by midnight crashed into the single digits. Rain began to change over to freezing rain, heavy sleet, and a period of light snow last night from west to east across west-central Illinois. This was due to frontogenetic forcing behind the arctic front. This morning, I was able to venture out and take a peek of some nice "icing" that occurred last night. We received a few tenths-of-an-inch of ice from last nights freezing rain which allowed for a good coating on trees and many outdoor surfaces. This morning was not the funnest of times to photograph however with wind chills near -20 this morning. In fact, maybe one of the worst of times to photograph...It was just brutally cold!!!
Ice-coated branch and leaves
A weird site in December...ice coated green grass
As I type this a Winter Storm Watch is in effect for tomorrow night and early Wednesday morning for a fairly "healthy" snowfall that is expected. Nice isentrophic lift will be the cause of this shoveling snow from a shortwave moving into the Midwest. Looks like either side of I-80 should pick up between 3-6 inches maybe locally higher in the favored banding areas (50 miles south or north of Ottumwa, IA-to-Moline, IL-to-Rockford, IL line). After that another storm is on the horizon late in the week that has some potential as well which is also being watched rather closely. That system could put down 1 inch of QPF which ought to be interesting depending on precip-type. I'll probably be posting again rather soon...The active December pattern just will not let up...
