Parts of Midwest see 1st snowstorm of the season

Des Moines, Iowa, Chicago, Saginaw, Michigan, and Milwaukee are among the cities that will likely receive enough snow to shovel and plow.

Drivers in West MI, where lake effect snow is expected Saturday night, should prepare for even dicier road conditions in a few spots once the fluffier snow begins to cover freezing slush, Webb said.

Snow accumulates in a tree during the first snow of the season Friday, November 20, 2015, in Sioux Falls, S.D.

The snow is expected to continue Saturday through IL, IN and MI but the front will move into Canada by Sunday, the weather service says. Light accumulations are possible on grassy areas and elevated surfaces.

A winter storm warning with up to 10 inches of snow is in effect in northern IL through Saturday afternoon. Winds of up to 25 miles per hour in a few areas produced blowing and drifting snow. The weather service says its records show two previous big snowfalls in November in Chicago: 8 inches on Nov. 6, 1951, and 7.5 inches on Nov. 26, 1975.

Parts of South Dakota and Iowa had more than a foot on Friday. Roads will start to become slushy by Saturday morning, said Evan Webb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids.

Northwestern Cook County is expected to get anywhere between 4 to 8 inches of snow in areas away from the lakefront, with 2 to 4 inches near the lake and in downtown Chicago, according to the National Weather Service. He also says there’s an unusually drastic difference in snowfall between the northern and southern portions of South Dakota’s most populous city.

Heavy weekend snow is also in the forecast for parts of Wisconsin, MI and IL. Tractor-trailers pulled off slow-moving interstates to park for the day, said Bret Brown, a cashier at Roadway Express truck stop in Sioux Falls.

Winter storm warnings and advisories are in place in the Upper Midwest. Detroit will probably see 1 to 3 inches of snow.

“In the Midwest, the most likely area for several inches of snow to fall is from central Iowa to northern IL, southern Wisconsin and into part of central Lower MI”, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brian Wimer said.