Another round with snow, ice slamming parts of us

On February 12, 2025By Littum

A second Winter Storm In so many days, it was expected to begin its attack on parts of the Midwest Wednesday – Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City, Missouri, among places that are likely to be knocked with snow.

The storm comes hours after a system that foamed much of the same region with a little rainfall landed harder in some parts of the east coast. The latest storm causes snow to gather in nearly 2,000 miles from Colorado to Michigan and Maine, Accuweather said.

The national weather forecast called for almost a foot of snow to fall in the Chicago area through Wednesday night. Detroit could get 4-7 inches, Milwaukee 6-9 inches. On Thursday, the storm rolls through the east coast and falls 3-6 inches in Maine.

“Large travel disorders will occur when snow falls on some of the busiest roads and airports in the nation,” Warned Accuweather.

The storm could be the largest of the season for several Midwest towns, including Detroit and Chicago, Accuweather said. Chicago’s biggest snow this year was 2.2 inches, measured at O’Hare Airport on January 10th. Chicago is among the northern central states that hang well behind the typical seasonal snowfall so far and detect only 10 inches of snow from Monday – compared to a historic average of 24.5 inches for this point of the season.

Snowfall in Milwaukee was 39% of the historic average for the date; 44% for Minneapolis and 56% in Detroit.

The forecasts said that the snow falling in the mid-Atlantic is dry and fluffy north of Washington, DC, but heavier and wetter to the south.

Why is this? Air temperature determines the kind of snow that falls – the powder that skiers love, or the heavy, wet snow that is hard to cloud.

Wet snow occurs when the air temperature near the surface is over freezing, causing the snowflakes to partially melt before they reach the surface, computweather said in a Online report. “This causes the snowflakes to become sticky and lightly adheres and accumulates on almost every outdoor surfaces,” said computer -meteorologist Eric Deroche.

Dry snow is more common as it occurs when the surface air temperature is below freezing. “Unlike wet snow is dry snow powdered and cannot easily form for snowballs or snowmen,” said there. “In addition, colder air temperatures correlate with lighter and fluffier snow containing less water per inch.”

The weight of snow can vary dramatically: a cubic foot of dry, powdered snow can weigh 3 pounds, while a cubic foot of heavy, wet snow can weigh as much as 10 pounds.

–Doyle rice