Snow break today, but don’t get too excited
Don’t get too used to the snowfall break.
Forecasters are calling for a snowstorm of unknown severity for Tuesday into Wednesday. That would follow snow that hit the suburbs from Friday night into Saturday.
As for Sunday, traveling for Super Bowl parties or anything else should not be deterred by nasty winter weather.
“It’s going to get cold during the night,” National Weather Service meteorologist Jamie Enderlen said. “But during the day, we might see the sun, that weird ball in the sky.”
O’Hare International Airport had received a cumulative snowfall of 4 inches as of 6 p.m. Saturday, according to the weather service’s spotter report. Using old-school rulers and tips they receive from the weather service, other volunteer spotter totals from mid- to late afternoon included Downers Grove at 4.2 inches, Geneva at 3.9 inches and Antioch at 3.5 inches.
While Illinois State Police reported few significant problems on the area’s expressways from the latest snowfall, it affected Saturday’s varsity high school sports schedule in most areas.
Postponed boys basketball games included Wheaton Academy at Aurora Central Catholic, Kaneland at DeKalb and Batavia’s participation the Rock Island Shootout.
In girls basketball, postponements included Geneva at Larkin, Maine West at Moline and Neuqua Valley at South Elgin. In wrestling, the DuPage Valley Conference meet hosted by Glenbard East was postponed and will be contested Sunday.
Fortunately for Erin Fabbri, the St. Viator-Carmel Catholic game was not wiped out due to snow in Mundelein. With 3.9 seconds left in the contest, Viator’s Fabbri scored her 1,000th career point on a free throw as the Arlington Heights school upset Carmel 54-51.
Meanwhile, any hopes that forecasts for dismal weather will be proven wrong usually fall flat these days. National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Nelson explained the federal forecasting agency floats weather balloons across the country twice a day, keeping a close eye on patterns and any changes they may undergo.
Looking ahead, there’s no immediate break in sight from the winter many have come to hate, Nelson said.
“Indications are that February is going to be on the cold side,” he said.
Nelson said typical temperatures in the mid-30s may be reached on the back side of this month.
More than 375 flights at O’Hare and at least 105 at Midway Airport were proactively canceled Saturday. Both airports estimated 30-minute delays for the flights still scheduled.
ŸDaily Herald prep sports editor Aaron Gabriel and sports writer Joe Aguilar contributed to this report.