It was quite the wild start to the weekend in the Stateline with Winter Storm Warnings eventually being issued across the area from early Saturday morning into the afternoon. A very potent low-pressure system was bearing down on the Stateline, and would end up bringing some of the highest snow totals of the season for most! Many across the Stateline woke up to heavy snow falling, with road conditions having picked up a slushy accumulation. When everything was all said and done, the highest totals across the area were to the North and West of Rockford, with many reports of over one foot of snow! The highest snow reports came from Jo Daviess and Stephenson counties, with numerous reports of 12″+ of fresh snow. Closer to Rockford, many reports were closer to 3-5″ of snow, with the Rockford airport recording just over 3 inches.

There was a very sharp gradient of snow toward the Southeast end of the system, as expected. This is where the transition from rain to snow was a little slower, and the heaviest bands of snow stayed away from. Meanwhile, those bands repeatedly went over a line from Carroll County in Illinois up through Rock and Walworth County in Wisconsin. This is where the axis of heaviest snow ended up falling.

We can go back and watch radar as that transition from rain to snow took place closer to 2AM for most. However, the heaviest bands of snow continually went over areas North and West of Rockford, which is why the highest accumulations were that direction. You can see the darkest colors of blue appearing mainly West of Rockford up through 5AM or so, which is when things started winding down. It is likely some of these bands of snow were producing intense rates of nearly 2″ per hour!

Road conditions improved very quickly into the afternoon, as the sun came out to melt away some of the snow. Notice in Rochelle it is very hard to even tell there was any snow, let alone that there was a foot of fresh snow just a few counties away. Other locations in the Stateline held onto a bit of snow cover into the evening, but roads were much clearer by afternoon than they were in the early morning when the heaviest snow was falling.

Once the snow moved out, we saw some of that sunshine in the afternoon and evening, leading to stunning pictures like this one from Freeport of the sunset reflecting over a fresh snowfall.

Even with the Rockford airport only receiving just over 3″ of snow from this system, this is now the snowiest March since 1972 in Rockford, and the 11th snowiest on record. We have seen nearly triple the monthly average so far this month! While we still have a few days left in March to add onto that total, I for one hope we are done with snow until late fall at least!