Weather officials Wednesday said the strongest of the winds expected to hit the area happened Tuesday night as a storm system continued to move from the Rocky Mountains into the Midwest, making way for a cold pattern.
The cold weather pattern will bring temperatures of normal lows in the single digits to around the 20s, said Kevin Doom, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Romeoville.
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“We don’t like to use the term polar vortex. It is going to be rather chilly, but nothing out of the ordinary,” Doom said.
With the strongest of the winds tapering down to 25 to 35 mph, the area has been experiencing light rain and drizzle. However, that precipitation may change to snow Wednesday.
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“It will be a healthy rain before the snow,” Doom said.
Earlier, much of the central United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest braced for blizzardlike conditions, while states farther south saw tornado warnings from a massive storm blowing across the country. An area stretching from Montana into western Nebraska and Colorado was under blizzard warnings, and the National Weather Service said that as much as 2 feet of snow was possible in some areas of western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska.
The system was headed east as of early afternoon.
The temperature at Midway Airport registered at 42 degrees this morning and the forecast called for rain and patchy fog.
