ICE STORM WARNINGS and WINTER WEATHER ADVISORIES remain in place for northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin as a mixture of rain and freezing rain continues. The intensity of the precipitation will become a little less through the evening, but the impacts from the accumulating ice will continue due to gusty northeast winds.

Most of the ice accumulation have occurred on elevated surfaces such as bridges and overpasses, tree limbs and power lines. Main roads remain wet due to how heavy the precipitation fell, pre-treating the roads, and temperatures just at or above 32 degrees. But the elevated surfaces have stayed below 32 degrees causing the ice to accumulate in a hurry.

The weight of nearly a quarter inch of ice has caused numerous tree branches and power lines to fall, causing widespread power outages. These power outages are likely to continue, even as the precipitation comes to an end tonight and Thursday. Wind gusts Thursday afternoon could be as high as 40 mph from the west!

Temperatures are likely to hold steady, although we may see the numbers drop a degree, this evening. Even though most roadways are wet, black ice may still occur and anyone out needs to remain mindful of the slick conditions that could occur as temperatures fall briefly below freezing. There have been some reports of ice-covered roads west of Rockford, in Northwest Illinois, where temperatures were below freezing a little longer during the day. Bridges and overpasses remain at risk for being icy, as well as secondary roads, back roads and country roads. If you do have to be out tonight, please make sure you are using caution and treat the wet roads as if they are icy. It’s very well possible that a portion of the road may be just wet in one location, but icy in another. Slick conditions will continue into Thursday morning.