A low pressure system heading toward the Eastern Seaboard triggered the snow event. It had good support from the upper levels of the troposphere, with an especially strong jet (concentrated area of winds). This snow event produced light snow, as temperatures were below the freezing mark, thereby limiting the water content in the snow. This is the type of snow with a 15:1 snow to water ratio. So light, fluffy stuff that doesn't pack well when I attempted to ball up a handful.
Here in Oak Park, it snowed nearly nonstop from about 2 PM on Tuesday, December 31, until about 3 PM on Thursday, January 2--about 50 hours of snow. Tom Skilling in his weather broadcasts in the course of the event mentioned that a mesolow was developing out in Lake Michigan. Basically, that's a small scale circulation that develops, in which air moves cyclonically (counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere). This helped steer surface flow from the east onto the southwest Lake Michigan shoreline in northeast Illinois. So this side of the lake got lake-effect snow following right from the system-induced snow. It's not all that often that the winds blow in an easterly manner into northeast Illinois and cause lake-effect snow--it usually happens in northwest Indiana and especially western Michigan. That was certainly a remarkable part of the event.
When it all finally ended on Thursday, there was about a foot of snow on the ground in Oak Park. It all made for some beautiful wintry white scenes outside for those 50 hours.
Here's a picture I got from just outside the front door on Thursday morning, about 9:20 AM:
And here's an interesting formation that appeared on top of the hot tub on the deck:
In this picture, the normally copper dome of Ascension Parish in Oak Park has a thin white blanket on part of it, as of Thursday midday:
Wintertime is definitely here and kicking in high gear...unlike last winter.
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