It is interesting. I have always believed that Tom never hyped storms but did a great job providing analysis.

If LOT is getting interested in this, then I'm on board.

1926-30 was awesome. Looks like we're set for the next few years!

What say you, LOT? Forecast attention this weekend focuses on the major winter storm expected to have significant impacts across a good chunk of the southern and eastern CONUS. Locally, our area is expected to remain along the northern periphery of this large and expansive storm system, which naturally adds question marks with regards to how far northwest impactful wintery precipitation will fall. This is especially the case considering that a sharp north- northwestern cutoff in precipitation could occur over, or near parts of northwestern IL. Nevertheless, forecast confidence continues to increase in accumulating snowfall falling across much of central into northeastern IL and northwestern IN, most notably during the Saturday night and on Sunday timeframe. A robust baroclinic zone will settle south across the southern states Friday into the weekend along the southern periphery of the Arctic airmass settling into the area tonight. Friday into Saturday, upstream height falls resulting form the strengthening aggregate troughing across the Rockies will induce a strengthening lower-level southerly mass response from the Gulf northward across this baroclinic boundary. This will in turn foster the development of an expansive wintry precipitation shield from the central and southern Plains late Friday into Friday night eastward across much of the southern half of the country Saturday into Sunday. While a majority of the heavy precipitation with this system is expected to fall south of our area, as mentioned, chances continue to increase that much of our local area will experience some accumulating snowfall late Saturday through Sunday. The snow may come in two separate waves, with the first potentially coming Saturday afternoon into the evening, and a second coming Saturday night and on Sunday. Interestingly, with the Arctic airmass remaining in place across our area, the thermodyamics profile in which this snow will be generated within will feature a very deep Dendritic Growth Zone (DGZ), likely in excess of 10,000 ft. This will in turn foster a higher than average liquid-to- snow ratio than is typical for our area, with 20-25+ to 1 ratios certainly in play. Accordingly, even a tenth to two tenths of an inch of QPF that falls could result in a few inches of dry fluffy accumulation. While confidence does continue to increase in at least parts of our local area experiencing some accumulating snowfall Saturday afternoon into Sunday, uncertainty remains with the specifics. For example, as noted above, one of the main question marks that remains is how far northwest into our area accumulating snow will extend. This as the precipitation looks to fight with drier air trying to advect into the region from the Arctic high to our northwest. The other question resides around the extent of lake enhanced snowfall along the south-southwesterly periphery of Lake Michigan Saturday night into Sunday. Low-level thermodynamic conditions do look favorable for this, and there is concern that this could result in higher snow amounts along and near the lakeshore into Sunday. Stay tuned for forecast updates!