An ice storm warning was issued for multiple counties in the Chicago area as several others remain under a winter weather advisory with accumulating snow, ice and rain all expected to start the new year.
The Ice Storm Warning was issued for Kankakee, LaSalle and Grundy counties and will remain in effect until 6pm Friday.
“Significant ice build-up, downed tree branches and power outages” are likely during the storm, according to the warning, which also warns of ice build-ups from a quarter to a third of an inch and gusts of wind up to 30 mph.
According to the National Weather Service, travel is “strongly discouraged” during this storm.
Meanwhile, a winter weather advisory is in effect until midnight for DeKalb, Kane, DuPage, Kendall, Cook and Will counties in Illinois and Lake and Porter counties in Indiana. McHenry and Lake counties were added to that advisory later Friday morning.
Snow accumulations up to 3 inches and ice accumulations up to 1 inch are possible along with gusts of wind up to 30 mph. According to the warning, there may also be an accumulation of sleet.
According to NBC 5 Storm Team meteorologist Paul Deanno, precipitation is expected to start as snow or sleet on Friday morning. After a cold night, that snow or sleet will immediately make the roads slippery.
Ice buildup from 0.10 inches to 0.25 inches is possible, especially south of Chicago. That’s enough to make roads very icy and knock down some tree branches.
A transition to rain is likely Friday afternoon and the storm will end as snow, with snow speeds similar to what the area saw on Tuesday.
In Chicago, one to three inches of snow accumulation is expected, with slightly higher north and west totals.
A drier pattern starts on Saturday afternoon.
In a press release, ComEd announced on Thursday that it is expanding staff and equipment to respond to any outages in the area.
ComEd says it encourages customers to contact the company immediately if they experience a power outage and take the following precautions:
- If a failed power line is detected, immediately call ComEd at 1-800-EDISON1 (1-800-334-7661). Spanish-speaking customers should call 1-800-95-LUCES (1-800-955-8237).
- Never approach a downed power line. Always assume that a power line is live and extremely dangerous.
- In the event of a failure, do not approach the ComEd crews working on power restoration to ask for restore times. Crews may be working on live electrical equipment and the perimeter of the work area may be dangerous. In addition, for the safety of themselves and the public, crews practice social distancing.
Customers can also text the word “OUT” to 26633 (COMED) to report a fault.
The Illinois Tollway also said it is mobilizing its entire fleet of 196 snowplows and opening its snow operations center in preparation for the storm.
The toll road urged drivers to “slow down and spend extra time on their New Year’s trips”.
“Keeping our customers safe is our number one priority and we will work continuously throughout this storm to maintain safe driving conditions on our roads,” said José Alvarez, Illinois Tollway chief executive officer in a statement. “We ask drivers to help us protect them by increasing their distance from other vehicles so they have more time to react to unexpected traffic or road conditions. We also want to remind drivers to give shifts and emergency vehicles the extra space they need to do their jobs. “