Unpack that warm coat and hold on to your hat as temperatures plummeted nearly 30 degrees in 12 hours and wind gusts of over 40 miles-per-hour hit the Chicago area Friday after days of unseasonably warm weather.
At O’Hare, the temperature as of 7 a.m. was 31 degrees — nearly 30 degrees lower than the high of 58 degrees recorded Thursday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
While snow is possible in the west suburbs closer to Rockford, forecasters didn’t rule out the possibility that the city metro area could see some snow flurries around 9 or 10 a.m.
“We’ve had that strong area of low pressure that was moving over the area late last night into this morning, and behind that was a pretty noticeable cold front,” Zachary Yack, a meteorologist with the weather service, said. “As that front came through, temperatures dropped pretty substantially behind it and that’s part of why we have those cold temperatures in addition to the very gusty winds that are out there this morning.”
A wind advisory was in effect until 4 p.m. for much of northern Illinois and northwest Indiana, according to the weather service.
While snow is possible in the west suburbs closer to Rockford, Yack didn’t rule out the possibility that the metro area will see some snow flurries around 9 or 10 a.m.
Roadways won’t be impacted by the snowfall but Yack urged anyone driving larger vehicles to proceed with caution.
“Be prepared that if you have a stronger gust hit you, it could cause your vehicle to wobble a little bit,” Yack said.