Significant snowfall is possible for Peoria this week. Here are details on the forecast

Peoria is in line for the biggest snowfall of the winter, with three or more inches possible midweek.

According to the National Weather Service in Lincoln, snow is forecast for Wednesday in Peoria, with accumulation beginning to pick up after noon and continuing into the evening.

Chuck Schaffer, a NWS meteorologist, said that while no set accumulation amounts are available as of Sunday, he did note that much of Illinois from the northwest corner of the state to Interstate 70 may be in line for significant accumulation.

“As of right now, it looks like areas from I-55 northwest towards the Illinois River and up into northwest Illinois is in line for higher accumulation,” Schaffer said. “I would note that any subtle shift in the track of the storm could change that location as we head into the next few days.”

Schaffer said that a low-pressure system currently developing over the western United States will shift eastward toward the southern Great Plains and the Ohio Valley Wednesday, with snowfall expected for many areas north of that system.

“It’s not particularly deep for this time of year, but there is enough moisture with the system that it looks like it’ll produce a pretty widespread area for accumulation of snow,” Schaffer said.

The weather service says that an area between I-74 and I-55, including Peoria and Springfield, has a greater than 70% of seeing three or more inches of snow as of Sunday morning. The biggest impact will likely be felt Wednesday afternoon, with commuters likely to see snow-covered roadways as they head home from work.

“It does look like Wednesday afternoon into Wednesday night, people could expect some snow-covered roadways (and) slow travel,” Schaffer said. “So if conditions continue to look like this, people might want to delay plans or certainly practice safe winter weather driving as far as allowing plenty of extra time, letting people know when they’ll be traveling and taking it careful on the roadways.”

If snowfall meets early projections, it will almost certainly be the largest of the winter so far, with the Peoria area having avoided major snowstorms earlier in the season. When many areas to the south received larger amounts in January, only two inches fell in Peoria.

Snowfall is possible multiple days this week, with a minor event set for Monday night into Tuesday morning and a potential wintry mix Friday night into Saturday.

“It looks like another system coming through late Friday through the day Saturday,” Schaffer said. “It looks similar to the one we’re watching midweek, so it’s the kind of system that can produce some winter weather impact, although at this point, we don’t know if that will actually occur because the margin of error is pretty large.”

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This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria weather forecast: Biggest snowfall of winter possible