Blizzard to evolve over central US into the weekend

AccuWeather

A new storm moving into the central United States will have the potential to shut down travel due to heavy snow, strong winds, extensive blowing and drifting snow and plummeting temperatures.

Transcript

00:00 Alright, a blizzard is going to unfold across the Great Lakes State tomorrow.

00:03 I want to make sure we understand exactly what a blizzard is.

00:07 It is a unique set of criteria that must be met for it to be a full-fledged blizzard.

00:14 Snow and blowing snow producing visibilities of a quarter mile or less.

00:19 You have to have wind gusts or sustained winds of at least 35 miles per hour.

00:24 And you must get these conditions for at least three hours.

00:29 These conditions will be met in this area tomorrow afternoon, beginning tomorrow afternoon,

00:35 northern Missouri and in eastern Iowa.

00:38 And then later tomorrow afternoon, tomorrow night into Saturday, across much of Wisconsin,

00:43 Illinois and Michigan.

00:45 If you live in these areas within the blue, including cities like Chicago, Green Bay,

00:52 Traverse City, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Peoria, Rockford and Des Moines, you should

00:59 not be out on the roads during this time frame.

01:02 You're putting your life in danger because there's going to be whiteouts.

01:06 Travel conditions will be next to impossible.

01:08 Extensive blowing and drifting of snow as well.

01:12 Now here comes the snow around Omaha, around Des Moines and Sioux Falls as we head into

01:19 our Thursday night.

01:20 Blizzards are not underway here.

01:21 Then Friday morning, here comes our storm across Missouri.

01:25 Snow starts picking up here from Rochester, Minnesota toward Des Moines.

01:30 Also Quad Cities, Dubuque and now in the northwestern parts of Illinois.

01:34 Chicago, I think you're going to get a mixture of rain and snow in the city tomorrow afternoon,

01:39 late tomorrow morning into tomorrow afternoon.

01:41 This is when the blizzard unfolds.

01:42 The center of the storm will be just south of South Bend.

01:46 Here comes the winds ramping up on the west side.

01:49 So here we go with the full-fledged blizzard.

01:51 I think across southeastern Minnesota, eastern Iowa, northwestern Illinois.

01:56 The worst of the storm coming to Chicago tomorrow evening as the storm pushes across Michigan

02:01 and continues to strengthen.

02:04 This is the height of the storm here for Green Bay into Chicago.

02:08 Then the storm starts to move away Saturday morning.

02:10 But I do want to stress that the winds in this area will continue to howl Saturday night

02:16 or I should say late Friday night through the day on Saturday with extensive blowing

02:21 and drifting of snow.

02:22 Des Moines, Green Bay, Omaha, you're looking at 6 to 12 inches of snow.

02:27 That includes the Chicago area.

02:29 Detroit you're going to have a mix of 3 to 6 inches.

02:31 That will be 3 to 6 inches just south of the Indiana State Toll Road and in the central

02:36 parts of Illinois as well.

02:38 Over a foot of snow we think across most of Michigan.

02:42 And again, extensive blowing and drifting of snow and a full-fledged blizzard.

02:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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