Artic chill on its way to suburbs; Tornado towns brace for snow, ice

Accuweather.com is forecasting cold temperatures but no snow or ice over the next several days in the suburbs.

Communities downstate that were hit by tornadoes could see ice and snow today and Friday, accuweather.com is predicting.

Forecasts are calling for high temperatures around 30 degrees today, but temps will be begin to drop around rush hour with overnight lows in the teens.

Friday’s high should be around 20 degrees with mostly cloudy skies.

Residents of Brookport, a small southern Illinois community that’s still recovering from last month’s deadly tornadoes, are bracing for another round of severe weather as a wintry storm pushes toward the region.

Three people died near Brookport when a tornado touched down Nov. 17 — one of about two dozen twisters that rolled across Illinois that day.

The storms were blamed for seven deaths across the state. In Brookport, a city of about 1,000 residents along the Ohio River, many homes were still heavily damaged or destroyed.

“(We’re) doing a lot of praying the storm don’t come,” interim mayor Tom Souders told WSIL-TV. “That’s the first thing that we’re doing.”

Meanwhile, Souders said, workers were scrambling to cover up waterlines to keep them from freezing or bursting.

And some cleanup efforts were being halted Wednesday so road crews could prepare to treat roads.

The National Weather Service said some areas of southern Illinois, western Kentucky and southeastern Missouri could get up to half an inch of ice, followed by several inches of snow.

Ÿ The Associated Press contributed to this report.