More winter precipitation and weeks of bitter cold are headed this way, just days after the tri states were blanketed in inches of dense, wet snow.
Brian Pierce, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities, said there are actually two storms on the radar.
The first is a minor system that might bring a bit of snow to the region Wednesday night.
“If it does, it’s definitely going to be under an inch and it will be a lot drier than the snow we had with the most recent event,” Pierce said.
The second storm blows in Thursday night and could carry on through Saturday. It’s the one to watch out for.
Pierce said it will be comparable in strength to the storm earlier this week.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there was a 70% probability of six or more inches in west central Illinois and southeast Iowa – on top of everything that’s still on ground.
Plus, with the possibility of some warmer air coming up this time, there could be variations in precipitation with this storm.
“The last one we had all snow. This time it looks like we could possibly have some freezing rain to go along with it at times, which is just going to make a bad situation even worse, if that would occur,” Pierce said.
Pierce said the National Weather Service will refine its predicted snow totals as the storm comes into focus Thursday.
We’re also in for some much colder weather the next couple weeks.
Pierce said temperatures will plummet as the big storm comes through, with highs in the teens and lows below zero by Saturday.
“We’re looking at about a 70 to 80% probability of temperatures being well below normal, which is a very substantial signal. There is going to be a large dump of arctic air coming down,” Pierce said.
It’s expected temperatures will remain below normal through at least Jan. 24.
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