Update: First Snow of the Season Arrives

Winter storm warning in effect until early Friday morning.

The season's first winter storm has pushed into the area. As expected, the rain seen most of Thursday turned into snow as temperatures started to drop during the late afternoon. A winter storm warning remains in effect until 3 p.m. Friday, the National Weather Service is reporting.  The NWS, as of 7:30 p.m., expected snow totals to be closer to the four-inch range, with the higher amounts across the far north and northwest suburbs.  Winds will be up to 30-40 mph with gusts as high as 60 mph. "The combination of the intense snowfall and very strong winds will result in greatly reduced visibilities and possibly near blizzard conditions. Falling temperatures will cause roads to become snow covered and (make) travel treacherous. This will …

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Weather Updates

Thundersnow? Blizzards? What's It Mean?

Patch spoke with Paul Sirvatka, a professor of meteorology at College of DuPage to find out what's really going on up there.

Paul Sirvatka, a professor of meteorology at College of DuPage says you need to be home by 6 p.m. tonight, no joking! He even reccommends taking the day off tomorrow. According to Sirvatka, if we get over 17 inches of snow tonight, that puts us in the top five largest snowfalls on record! If we get over 20, we get pushed to the top three! "It really is that bad out there," Sirvatka said. "Have you looked outside recently? It's really starting to come down and this is just the start. This is a storm to rival the '67 blizzard." But when meteorologists say blizzard, what exactly are they talking about? A blizzard occurs when you get a very high level of snowfall (Sirvatka says overnight to expect some four inches an hour) and high winds. This…

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