Late Season Snow To Hit Champaign-Urbana Saturday

Winter weather advisories go into effect Friday evening for Champaign, Ford, and Vermilion counties in east central Illinois.

Chambana Weather meteorologist Andrew Pritchard said precipitation will begin Friday night as rain, before shifting over to snow sometime Saturday.

“We may spend much of Saturday morning fluctuating back and forth between rain, sleet, heavy wet snow, maybe a little of all three at the same time, before transitioning to primarily a heavy wet snow by the time we get to Saturday afternoon," Pritchard said.

Pritchard said snow accumulations by Saturday night will likely range from just a dusting in southern Champaign County, to 1-2 inches in Champaign-Urbana, to five inches in parts of Ford County.

He said the good news is that the snow will be slow to accumulate.

“We’ve been above freezing for the last few days, so the ground is also above freezing, and so any snow that begins falling will initially be melting as it makes contact with the ground," Pritchard said. "The other thing that’s going to be working against that is the fact that most of the snow will be mixing with rain for a lot of the time, at least until we get into Saturday afternoon.”

The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for Champaign and Vermilion counties starting at 7:00pm Friday. The weather service has also issued a winter storm watch for Ford and Iroquois counties from Friday evening through Saturday afternoon.