By Saturday, the upper Midwest will be a much more snow-filled place.

A strong winter storm will move across the upper Midwest Thursday and Friday, bringing with it strong winds and plenty of snow. And of course many headaches for those traveling on roads and by air.

It began Thursday morning with a line of freezing rain that did make for some slick spots. This all turns into snow as temps cool below freezing just after noon Thursday. It's at this point that the snow begins to pick up. And it won't stop. It will be snowing at a moderate pace form Thursday afternoon through Friday afternoon. Expect 1-3" to fall during the Thursday afternoon, and another 2-5" on Friday.

All in all, most of us will likely see between 4-8", with most of us seeing 5-7". It is expected that a few of us will see isolated amounts greater than 8", but where exactly that will be comes down to small scale fluid features in the storm on Friday.

Blizzard conditions are expected along and west of I-35 Thursday evening into Friday morning as strong northerly winds gust above 30mph and blow all the snow around, making for white out conditions. Travel across the area will be impacted through Friday. 

The good news is that because the snow doesn't fall all at once, plows should be able to get a decent handle on major roads. Travel is still not advised when the winter storm warning and blizzard warnings go into effect (Most of the area between 6pm Thursday - 6pm Friday).

Snowfall begins around noon Thursday, ramps up through the afternoon and overnight, and will begin to die off Friday around noon. 

Here's a synopsis of why this is all occurring. Warm air form the past few days is providing great energy and moisture for this system. By Thursday night, the storms central low pressure system parks itself near La Crosse, Wisconsin as it peaks in strength. This puts most of our area, and especially those along I-35, at the perfect distance to get belted with the snow and wind of this peaking storm. The central low pressure juts south Friday into Iowa, but close enough to where the snow continues through the morning.