Winter Storm Warning issued for all of southeast Wisconsin ahead of powerful winter storm

The Winter Storm Watch has been upgraded to a Winter Storm Warning across southeast Wisconsin beginning at 6am Friday and running through noon Saturday.

Snow moves in Friday morning and could be moderate to heavy at times as it begins.

Midday into the afternoon, lighter snow rates are possible along with some rain mixing in right along the lake again as lake temps are still around 42° with air temps in the mid 30s. 

Any rain mixing in will change over to snow by early evening. By then we'll have a colder air mass moving in and a northeast wind, which would create lake enhancement and higher snowfall rates once again. Wind gusts will be strongest in the late evening into Saturday night as well with gusts between 40-50 mph possible. 

What starts as a wet and packy snow on Friday will transition to a fluffy snow by Saturday morning. Additional fluffy snow will fall throughout the day Saturday and will blow around thanks to 30-35 mph winds.

There is a good consensus on snow totals between 7-11" for a good portion of SE WI, and that may be conservative. There could be snow totals over 12" near the Kettle Moraine. The lower snow totals are possible from downtown Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha due to the mix during the afternoon Friday. Most of the accumulation in these locations occur Friday evening through Saturday.

Blowing and drifting will be a concern all day Saturday with light fluffy snow continuing to fall. Download the CBS 58 Ready Weather App for updates throughout the storm and to see if we make any tweaks to the snow total forecast as the lakefront continues to be uncertain.