01/22/2026
[12:48 PM CST Thursday 1/22/2026]
Midday Update on the Extreme Cold and Weekend Snow:
Cold weather headlines:
• There are no changes to the headline configuration for the worst of the cold tonight through Friday-morning (see attached map)
• Extreme Cold Warning in effect from 3 AM to noon CST Friday (dark blue shading on map)
• The main change is that after the Extreme Cold Warning expires at noon Friday, a Cold Weather Advisory will go in effect for the whole area until 9 AM on Saturday, with forecast wind chills expected to remain near or below the -20° threshold until late Friday night.
• For the Cold Weather Advisory counties late tonight-Friday morning (light blue shading), we simply extended the advisory until 9 AM CST Saturday, as it was previously set to expire at noon Friday.
Regarding the snow this weekend (Saturday-Sunday):
• The latest model data suggests that much of the area, with the possible exception of portions of northwest and north central IL (including Rockford metro), is likely in line for fluffy snow accumulations (amounts still TBD), which will be reflected in the afternoon forecast update (with respect to snow probabilities).
• The overall setup still has some key points of uncertainty which will determine the ultimate outcome locally:
• Including exactly where a cut off from accumulations to little/no snow sets up on the northwest periphery of the system
• Snowfall ratios certainly have the potential to be (much) higher than typical for January given the cold temps, which would boost accumulations, but as always, it's not as simple as cold temps = fluffy/very high ratio snow
• Worst of the event in terms of snowfall rates should be late Saturday night and during the day on Sunday
• Strongest winds Sunday afternoon-evening may cause some blowing and drifting snow issues, but it's unclear how strong winds will be
• The temps will be colder than usual for a snow system (high single digits and teens), which may limit the effectiveness of roadway treatments and exacerbate travel impacts.
• At least some lake enhancement of the snow appears probable for parts of northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana, possibly ending as a period of lake effect snow after the system snow winds down elsewhere (Sunday night-Monday AM).
