Up to 7 inches of snow forecast into Monday
Shovel it now; more on the way into Wednesday
Another round of snow dropped as much as 4 inches by Sunday night, and more was forecast to fall overnight.
Areas along Lake Michigan were also getting hit by lake-effect snow, which could boost totals to 7 inches in places, according to the National Weather Service.
It’s a good bet to shovel and stay out ahead of the snow because more is in the forecast overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, perhaps around 2 to 3 inches, plus some freezing rain or freezing drizzle.
As of 6 p.m. Sunday, Oak Creek had gotten 5 inches of light, fluffy snow; Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, 3.9; West Allis, 6.2; Brown Deer, Big Bend and Paddock Lake, 5.5; Greenfield, 4.2; and Mequon, 4.9 inches.
A heavier band of lake-effect snow boosted totals in some areas, said Mark Gehring, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Sullivan.
“We think (lake-effect snow) is helping out the snow totals in southeastern Wisconsin, but it’s hard to tell because you have a storm coming out of the southwest and the lake effect (snow) is curling underneath it,” Gehring said.
Gehring was expecting the lake-effect snow bands blanketing northern Milwaukee County north to the city of Sheboygan to shift farther south into the city of Milwaukee down to Kenosha County later Sunday night into Monday morning.
Monday’s morning commute could be sloppy since snow was expected to continue to fall until 6 a.m.
“When it’s all said and done, there will be 6- and 7-inch totals. This is a long-duration snow, which started (Sunday) morning and will go all night,” Gehring said.
A low-pressure system moved out of the eastern Rockies through the Great Plains, hitting Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri on Saturday before slowly moving into Wisconsin. The reason it snowed almost all Sunday is because the storm system is so slow-moving, said Gehring.
That could mean flurries continuing throughout Monday morning, even though the bulk of the snow is expected to end by 6 a.m.
A winter weather advisory remained in effect until 6 a.m. Monday. High temperatures will be in the 20s throughout Monday before dropping into single digits Monday night in the metro Milwaukee area.
The next chance for precipitation in southeastern Wisconsin is late Tuesday. Though it’s a bit early to pinpoint exactly when snow will start to fall, it looks likely between 3 and 6 a.m. Wednesday.
“We are expecting mostly snow for that storm,” Gehring said. “We do have chances of light freezing rain and freezing drizzle with this system. It will start as snow, but by late Wednesday morning it will become more of a mix of freezing rain and snow.
“It’s going to get kind of messy.”