A Winter Storm Warning now covers all of southern Illinois, along with most of southeast Missouri, western Kentucky, and southwest Indiana.
Forecasters say the winter storm now looks like it'll move into our region a little earlier than originally predicted.
National Weather Service Paducah Meteorologist Mike York says rain could start changing over to freezing precipitation Wednesday morning in Randolph County and move eastward throughout the afternoon.
But, he says roads won't become hazardous right away once the freezing precipitation starts to fall, due to warm ground temperatures and saturation.
Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Omer Osman said residents need to take the ice seriously.
"That is more dangerous than the 16, 18 inches of snow we were talking about because anybody could slip on that and it could be fatal.”
York says the storm looks like it'll produce more snow and sleet than freezing rain, but road conditions will eventually become quite hazardous. He says much of the area could see three to five inches of snow and about a tenth of an inch of ice. York says the ice coupled with winds gusts of up to 30 mph could still lead to power outages.
A Winter Storm Warning is in effect from Noon Wednesday to 6 am Friday.
