Forecast confidence is increasing on the possibility of significant snowfall to unfold across the region late Monday through Tuesday. While timing and the exact track of the storm system is still not quite clear yet, there is a growing concensus amongst some of the most recent weather model solutions for widespread accumulating snowfall to occur early next week.
A vigorous upper level storm system is expected to eject out of Alberta/British Columbia and into the northern Plains of the Lower 48 late Sunday. Riding along a baroclinic zone and a strong northwest jet, the upper level storm system will continue to move southeast from the Plains into the mid-Mississippi Valley region Monday night into Tuesday. As this storm system travels from Canada towards the mid-Mississippi Valley region, it will overspread snow from the Dakotas (Sunday/Monday) into the southern Great Lakes (Tuesday) including the Chicago area.
Similar to the snowstorm that impacted the region not even a week ago, this storm system will possess ample moisture content thanks to a flux of a warmer, moist airmass from the Southern U.S./Gulf of Mexico. With that said, it's looking like a pretty dynamic storm system. The axis of heaviest snow still favors the southern sections of the Chicago area (primarily south of I-80). A 3-8" preliminary snow range is reasonable from this storm system this far out with lighter amounts occurring close to the Wisconsin border and the heaviest amounts better than 6 inches occurring south of I-80 and west of the Fox Valley area.
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