This podcast discusses the upcoming storm system that is expected to develop along the mid mississippi river valley Monday night and move east into southern illinois on Tuesday while intensifying from 29.7 to 29.5. This system will continue rapid intensification as it moves Northeast along a cold front which will stall along central indiana. Cold air will be in place as at this time due to an arctic cold front that will move through just before chicago is affected by this system. There will be a little gulf moisture with this system according to weather channel (that's a recent update). Subtract 1 to 2 inches from the number 3 (the amount the model says) for Chicago and from the number 5 or 6 for South Bend and Detroit and this should be storm totals. 1 to 5 would include all 3 of these cities. Amounts closer to 1 for Chicago would make sense but lake enhancement (unique to Chicago) has not been taken into consideration. The storm will be at least slightly stronger when it hits south bend and Detroit. Therefore snowfall is unlikely to be under 2 inches for those cities.

4:50am update 4/18: water equivalent fractions s expected to be from .25 -.50 inches in the heavier hit areas. As of now there is a good possibility that Detroit will be included in this. In fact, for Detroit the timing of this snow is as supportive as can possibly be for a late April snow. This means that in Detroit, the snow will fall all at night and will therefore accumulate. As one heads west, the less true this becomes. Therefore, the first half of the snow accumulation in Chicago will come with a lot of melting. Highest amounts are expected to be southeast of I-55. Nws of Indiana is expecting up to 7 inches in the hardest hit locations in Northern Indiana. Although Detroit will likely see the same amount, current Nws forecasts for Detroit call for "several inches". There is one twist in Detroit and based on that variable it is possible that the heaviest snow will go just south of Detroit.