The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch with a forecast of 6 to 10 inches of heavy wet snow to the south and east of Chicago for Wednesday and Wednesday night.
The watch covers the Illinois counties of Kankakee, Iroquois and Ford and the Indiana counties of Porter, Newton, Jasper and Benton.
The heavy snow band is still very difficult to determine, but it will probably start out as a mix of rain and wet snow, becoming all snow along a narrow band just east of Interstate 57, from east-central Illinois and northwestern Indiana into lower Michigan.
The current forecast for the immediate Chicago area is up to 2 inches.
Gale warnings will be up on Lake Michigan, with strong northerly winds gusting over 45 mph and generating 15- to 20-foot waves, causing lakeshore flooding along Illinois and Indiana into southwest Michigan on Wednesday into Thursday.
The center of intensifying low pressure is expected to move out of Texas, curving northeast through Kentucky and Ohio on Wednesday and Wednesday night, reaching western New York on Thursday.
With this storm track, the southern and eastern portions of the Chicago area will be on the edge of the storm under a heavy wet snow Wednesday and Wednesday night.
Strong northeast winds will gradually shift to the north-northwest later Wednesday, with the flow over the waters of Lake Michigan enhancing snow along the lakefront.
The Illinois lakeshore and inland, including the city of Chicago, could be impacted by lake-enhanced snowfall. The snow should taper off quickly to the northwest, with little or no snow accumulation in westernmost portions of the Chicago area.
