And so it begins...

well I've had moderate to heavy snow falling since about 5:15pm and have 0.5" down so far. things will only get worse as the night goes on into the overnight hours when the heaviest snow is expected to fall.

there have already been reports of 5-12" in northern/northeast MO as the storm continues to ramp up. rates in northern MO/western IL have been impressive at 1-1.5"/hr this afternoon. rain has been reported in the southern suburbs and closer to the lake but has since gone over to snow at most places including ORD and MDW

here is an image taken off the 23z RUC, it has slowly been bumping up QPF for the overnight hours with some places picking up 0.3-0.5" QPF in 3 hours!



and here is a national radar loop of our storm

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/full_loop.php

just in...

0646 PM SNOW OTTAWA 41.35N 88.84W
02/21/2010 M1.2 INCH LA SALLE IL TRAINED SPOTTER

SNOW FELL IN ONE HOUR AND IS THE TOTAL SO FAR. HEAVY
SNOWFALL CONTINUES.

will have another update around 10pm


Matt