Active winter pattern on the way

Those hoping for a white Christmas this year may get their wish and then some.

An active winter weather pattern is shaping up for the next week and beyond, according to the National Weather Service. Central Illinois could see more snow Saturday night into early Sunday with 1-3 inches possible at this time. A potentially larger system could impact the area late Sunday through Monday although confidence is lower with the second system.

“The snow with both of these systems looks to be a little lighter than that wet snow we had last Sunday,” said NWS meteorologist Matt Friedlein.

Snow is also possible Tuesday on the leading edge of an arctic air mass which we typically don’t see until the middle of winter. High temperatures will only be in the lower teens or upper single digits Wednesday and Thursday of next week with overnight lows below zero, especially if there is fresh snow on the ground.

“That’s pretty substantial cold for this early in the season, especially considering how warm of an autumn we’ve had and in recent years we’ve had some mile Decembers, too,” Friedlein added.

Friedlein expects the winter weather pattern to remain active beyond seven days which means the atmosphere has plenty of cold air to draw from. We could see snow chances every few days for a good part of December.