Snow, dangerous temperatures expected for Springfield and central Illinois this week

Winter will quietly arrive Wednesday and then make its presence known in central Illinois with frigid and snowy weather.

According to the National Weather Service at Lincoln, winds up to 40 or 50 miles per hour and a chance of patchy snow begins Wednesday night, heads into Thursday, and continues Friday. It is too early to predict total snow accumulation but a conservative range of anywhere from three to five inches could fall, said NWS meteorologist Mike Albano. It remains possible the total could double dependent on the nature of the storm's path, he added.

"We do know that everyone is going to at least get some light, accumulating snow," he said. "So, yes, we are forecasting a White Christmas."

With dangerously cold wind chills of 10 to 30 below zero, blowing and drifting snow, and temperatures in the single digits, the Springfield Office of Public Works and the Illinois Department of Transportation are already in planning mode.

Recent Weather:Wet and cold weather is sticking around for a while. Here's what to expect

Snow and ice removal: How much and what it takes

The Springfield DPW is responsible for more than 1,450 lane miles of streets and cul-de-sacs according to the city's 2021-2022 snow and ice removal plan. About 610 of those miles are marked priority because of traffic and being potentially hazardous during bouts of extreme weather.

A staff of more than 100 is divided into two, 12-hour shifts that commandeer 25 dump trucks and 16 pickup trucks. Others assisting in snow and ice removal in the city include Lake Services; City Water, Light, and Power; and varying contractors.

City engineer Nate Bottom said the department will be pre-treating the roads on Wednesday with brine to keep the roads from icing over before patrolling the streets into Thursday. The department typically purchases 6,000 tons of salt per year, Bottom said, and larger events could see up to 2,000 tons of salt used.

"Generally speaking, we toss the salt on the main streets and the troubled spots," he said, his department having a meeting on Monday to discuss their plans.

Expenses for removal depend on the year, but the city typically expends anywhere from $200,000 to $1 million annually. Springfield spent more than $746,000 in 2020, primarily on rock salt expenses. The five-year average expense was $476,972 between 2016 and 2020.

Sangamon County and 14 other central Illinois counties are part of IDOT District 6 — an area where the department plows 5,475 miles of lanes according to its 2022-2023 fact sheet. The nearly 200 total single-axle dumps and tandems are used by the department to cover 154 truck routes.

Including staff, equipment, and material expenses, the district spent more than $7.5 million and used 36,000 tons of salt last year.

"We’re monitoring the forecast for a chance of severe weather this week, but it’s still early and forecasts can change but we will continue to monitor the weather closely like we always do," Paul Wappel, IDOT public information officer said. "We have staff, equipment, and salt ready for inclement weather."

Cold enough for the record books?

While it will be frigid on Friday and Saturday, daily almanacs from NWS show this week in 1983 and 1989 take the cake in terms of coldness.

Most of the record lows from this week come from that year, reaching the coldest on Dec. 23, 1989 with a minus 21 degrees. Dec. 24, 1983, recorded a low of minus 18 degrees and Christmas Day of the same year was as cold as minus 14 degrees.

Albano said the weather this week could be described as "extreme cold" and was due to an arctic front coming down from more northern latitudes.

"All that bottled-up cold air that usually stays up in Siberia and Canada is going to spill right into the central U.S., right into the midwest, and it's going to bring us some of the coldest temperatures of 2022," he said.

Preparing for a White Christmas

It has been 80 years since Irving Berlin's dream of a "White Christmas" -- a 1942 hit and now a holiday music staple.

There's no snow in the Christmas Day forecast, but near below-zero temperatures will likely ensure that any snow this week will be around come Sunday. Christmas 1944 brought the most amount of snowfall in Springfield with four inches of snow.

The snow, along with temperatures and the high winds, Albano said should make holiday travelers take heed and get started early with their plans. Those traveling by car Thursday and Friday should also carry along an emergency pack.

Starting early also applies to last-minute holiday shoppers.

"You're going to probably want everything wrapped up and under the tree by Wednesday night," Albano said.

Contact Patrick Keck: pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Snow, frigid temps forecast for Springfield leading into Christmas