Snow update

Things becoming a little more clear with the snowfall totals across northern Illinois Friday night into Saturday. Looks like we're finally converging on what will likely be a swath of 3-4 inch accumulations with isolated 5-6 inch totals possible in the heaviest banding likely in northwest Illinois around the Quad Cities / Sterling area. The main swath of 3-4 inch totals should extend out of Iowa into NW Illinois from the Quad Cities to Rockford southeast toward Kankakee to Peoria. As the strength of the system wanes during Saturday morning areas downstate in central and eastern Illinois will receive lesser amounts, but will still be at the very least sweeping off their front porches by Saturday morning. I''ll go with more common 1-2 inches down there, with a few 3 inch reports possible along and north of Interstate 74 from Bloomington to Danville.

Snow should begin in northwest Illinois between 9 PM and midnight, and translate into north central Illinois and the DeKalb area shortly after. Central Illinois should begin to see their first flakes around midnight or so. It will take a while to saturate the very dry column, so while initially the radar may indicate snowfall, it will take a couple hours before snow begins making it's way to the ground in earnest.

I'll throw in the disclaimer that with such a dry powdery snow, any area that sees any period of banding/increased precipitation rates could easily stack up the totals quickly. I've done my best to outline where I think the best banding will line up at 24 hours out, but adjustments may need made once the action begins! I'll try to throw in another update once the evening model suite comes out.