A major winter storm passing through Central Illinois this weekend largely missed Bloomington-Normal.
Wide-ranging snowfall predictions fell short, with accumulation of 1 to 1.5 inches in the Twin Cities. Areas south of McLean County registered up to 9 inches of snow, while Southern Illinois copes with power outages resulting from sleet and freezing rain.
State Climatologist Trent Ford said meteorologists can often tell when a coming storm contains snowfall but knowing when and how much are far more difficult to predict.
“It’s not that far between here and Southern Illinois, where we have that huge gradient of what type of precipitation falls,” Ford said. “Unfortunately, our weather forecast models and our systems are just not precise enough to be able to get exact information about what type of precipitation is falling.”
Travel disruptions likely to continue
The storm’s lingering impact on road and train travel will likely continue as temperatures drop to single digits overnight. Ford said wind models are more reliable than precipitation predictions. And even an inch of powdery snow like that registered in Bloomington-Normal can cause hazardous roads as wind picks up.
“If you have sustained 20-30 mph winds, you can easily get whiteout conditions and drifts that are much larger,” he said.
Overpreparing is better
Ford suggests planning ahead for winter weather, even if, like Sunday’s storm, the worst-case scenario doesn’t happen.
“If you can plan to not be out on the roads on that day or the day after, that’s your best plan,” he said. “If you have the privilege of being able to work from home, home is always your safest place to be.”
When ice is predicted, Ford suggests stocking batteries, alternative heat sources and nonperishable food in case of a power outage. And animals who spend any amount of time outside are also at risk when temperatures drop this low.
If you have to travel, Ford said, leave extra time and plan for icy intersections and on-ramps as salted roads become wet, then slick with dropping temperatures. With wind chills expected to drop below zero, keeping emergency supplies like warm winterwear in the car is a good idea, even for short trips.
“If it takes you 15 minutes to get to work, take 30 minutes just to make sure that you make it,” he said. “If you slide off the road and it’s 30 degrees outside, that’s not great. But if you slide off the road and it’s 3 degrees outside with a wind chill of -10, it doesn’t take more than a few minutes to have really serious health impacts.”
Looking ahead
The coming weeks bring more of the same, given predictions for a colder, wetter winter than previous years.
“It has been relatively mild through much of winter so far,” Ford said. “The outlook for this week through really the end of January is for below-normal temperatures—and that may extend into February as well.”
Though not technically a La Niña year, which can produce colder, wetter weather, Ford said “La Niña-like” conditions are “taking a dominant role of the Jetstream.”
“We’re seeing, over the last week or so and at least until the end of the month we’re going to see a winter pattern that does look like a typical La Niña across Central Illinois.”
