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Snowfall In Spring? B-N To See More Late Season Snow Thursday Into Friday

Snow on a branch
Staff
/
WGLT
Another late season snowfall event is expected Thursday night and Friday in central Illinois..

Harbingers of spring — budding trees, green grass, and a sunny sky — may not point to warmer weather as quickly as central Illinoisans might expect.

Bloomington-Normal will see snow accumulation again Thursday night and into Friday morning, following snowfall early Wednesday. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 7 p.m. Thursday until 10 a.m. Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

Up to 6 inches of snow are expected, with the higher amounts farther north in McLean County and "rapidly decreasing further south," said NWS.

But this is not uncommon for April. 

“If the air is cold enough, the atmosphere really doesn’t care what the calendar shows,” said Chris Miller, a NWS warning coordination meteorologist in Lincoln. “It will snow.”

Considered a transition month, April varies in weather and temperature. Colder weather systems arrive from the northwest, pushing in strong cold fronts across central Illinois. If the front is cold enough, it will bring snow. On average, half an inch of snow is recorded in the month of April.

“It’s that temperature difference across the country that gives us the varied weather we see this time of the year and also very windy weather,” said Miller. 

Fluctuating weather patterns is a common occurrence between seasons, particularly winter to spring and summer to fall. But Bloomington-Normal residents can expect a fast turnaround. 

“By Friday afternoon we’re expecting temperatures to pop right back up into the mid-40s and 50s on Saturday. So any snow we get is not going to last very long,” said Miller. 

Still, this weather can be dangerous. Late-season snow and icy conditions earlier this week caused a chain-reaction crash involving 60 vehicles on the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago. Fourteen people were injured, but none were life-threatening.

Miller takes this as a prescient warning and prepares Bloomington-Normal residents to “adjust your driving habits more than anything.”

For the weather to be consistent, it is a matter of similar wind directions and, fortunately for Bloomington-Normal, warm spring weather is just on the horizon.

“This week is this cold spell with the potential for some snow. But we’re looking at more typical spring-like temperatures as we finish out the month of April,” said Miller.

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Jolie Sherman is a newsroom intern at WGLT. She joined WGLT in fall 2019.
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