Major Late-November Blizzard: 8–14″ Snow & Power Outage Threat for Galesburg, Quad Cities & Chicagoland

Full breakdown:

• When it starts: Snow spreads in from Iowa after midnight tonight (Friday night into Saturday morning)
• Worst window: 3 a.m.–noon Saturday — heaviest rates over 1" per hour for several hours
• Snow type: Starts light & fluffy (major blowing/drifting) → turns heavy, wet, and sloppy Saturday afternoon
• Expected totals: 8–14 inches widespread across Galesburg, Knox County, Peoria, Quad Cities, and most of Chicagoland
• Winds: Gusts nearing 40 mph Saturday evening → high risk of downed trees, power lines, and widespread outages
• Travel: NWS is strongly discouraging all travel — roads will be dangerous to impassable Saturday
• After the storm: Canadian cold blast + fresh snow = single-digit lows Sunday night (6–18°) and Monday night (9–20°) with wind chills near 0°
• Early next week: Another quick 1–2" possible late Monday–Tuesday; cold pattern continues into December
• Rarity: Once-every-20-year event for central/southeast Illinois (last comparable storm: weekend after Thanksgiving 2019)

Mike Albano’s bottom line: “Confidence is about as high as it gets — this one’s a slam dunk.” Winter Storm Warnings are in effect.