CHICAGO — Snow is on the way to the Chicago area with the Winter Storm Warning to begin early Saturday morning.
The Warning goes into effect at 9 a.m. for Winnebago, Boone, McHenry, Ogle, Lee, De Kalb, Kane, La Salle, Kendall, Grundy and will counties.
The warning goes into effect at noon for Lake, DuPage and Cook counties in Illinois.
Snow is set to begin between 10 a.m. and noon with the heaviest falling from 2 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Four to 9 inches is possible, locally more lakeside.
Winds will become a big factor, strengthening in gusts to 35mph and, along Lake Michigan and in open areas, locally to 40 mph.
Colder air drawn into the storm will fluff snow up making it more susceptible to blowing and drifting.
The coldest temps and wind chills of the season to date are to sweep into the area with air temps falling to single digits from Chicago and west by daybreak Sunday amid howling north winds. This will generate wind chills dropping to into the 5-above to 8-below range from Chicago west–moderated to 5 to 15-above in northwest Indiana because of winds off the lake–but falling there during Sunday.