A vigorous upper-level disturbance tracked from the Northern Plains into the Midwest on January 7th, bringing widespread snow to central and southeast Illinois. The snow initially developed in the Illinois River Valley during the early evening hours of January 6th, then quickly spread eastward across the remainder of the area by midnight. Moderate to occasionally heavy snow fell overnight, continuing through the morning of January 7th. As dry air began to wrap into the deepening system from the west/southwest, the snow gradually tapered off by midday.
All of central and southeast Illinois experienced an accumulating snowfall from this winter storm. The heaviest snow occurred along and north of the I-74 corridor, where 5 to 7 inch amounts were common. The snow totals slowly dropped off further south, with 3 to 5 inches near the I-72 corridor, and 1 to 3 inches along and south of I-70.
Below is a map of the final snowfall amounts from this event. The reports were gathered from the following observation networks: Cooperative Weather Observer Program (COOP), Significant Weather Observation Program (SWOP), and the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS).
For additional reports, please see our Local Storm Report page.