Snow & Dangerous Cold

A very strong arctic cold front rolled through the CBS4 viewing area Saturday afternoon, bringing in brisk northwest winds that is filtering in very, very cold air.  Behind the front, snow began affecting parts of the area, especially southeastern Iowa and our Illinois counties.  Normally precipitation forms along and ahead of a cold front, but in this case the better forcing is behind the front.  Here are a look at forecast snow totals by Sunday afternoon.  Winter Weather Advisory through 6PM Sunday for southeastern hometowns for blowing and drifting of the 3 to 5"+ of snow expected.

Once the snow moves out of here, our focus turns to dangerously cold temperatures.  A very strong high pressure from Canada will take control, bringing a polar vortex into much of the Great Lakes regions.  A very strong gradient will create winds from the north at 10 to 20mph, gusting to 30mph at times.  Low temperatures will be near -20° Sunday night into Monday morning, creating very dangerous wind chills of -25° to -45°, with even lower wind chills expected.  A "Wind Chill Warning" goes into effect for the entire area at Noon Sunday and lasts through Noon Tuesday.

Here is the wind chill chart from our friends at the National Weather Service, showing how long it can take for frost bite to occur.

Daytime "highs" Monday will not make it above zero.  In fact, the QC metro may not make it above -10°.