It was a far cry from the 4 to 8 inches of blinding lake-effect snow that shut down portions of northern Indiana and southwest Michigan Saturday, but that band of lake-effect snow did work west, reaching the Chicago area Sunday morning. The snow was primarily limited to lakeside counties, with amounts ranging from just a dusting to 3.5 inches in Highland Park, but it was enough to cause a rash of crashes, including a pileup of about 40 cars that shut down portions of the Kennedy Expressway.
As cold as it has been in Chicago in recent days, even colder weather is scheduled to hit by midweek. Single-digit highs are forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, a rare late-winter occurrence that has happened only a dozen times beyond Feb. 17 in Chicago since 1871. Overnight lows should drop well below zero and potentially deliver the winter's lowest reading, currently 8 below Jan. 8.