Difficult driving conditions are afoot today as the region and northeast Illinois are dealing with strong winds, low temperatures and snow already on the ground.
The National Weather Service projected Northwest Indiana would get from 1 and 3 inches of snow Monday night, but that new snow would taper off today.
Stephen Rodriguez, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville, Ill., said strong winds of up to 35 mph would come in about 3 a.m., creating blizzard-like conditions. The region and northeast Illinois are under a blizzard storm warning until noon today. Rodriguez said there will be "near white-out conditions" and visibility at times will be reduced to less than one-quarter of a mile.
There is a slight chance of snow before noon, but temperatures will range from the single digits to the teens during the day. The wind chill will make it feel like it's below zero degrees.
More snowfall is likely Wednesday and blizzard-like conditions are possible then as well. The Weather Service has a blizzard watch in effect from Wednesday afternoon through late Wednesday night.
Marc Malczewski, superintendent of Lake County's Highway Department said with the potential for bad weather Monday, 38 trucks will be on roads applying salt and cleaning roads.
Malczewski said the county started dispatching trucks about 5:30 p.m. Monday, and the snow wasn't creating an extremely difficult problem, but the wind could be trouble today.
"We'll watch it and stay on it as long as it takes," Malczewski said.
Merrillville schools Superintendent Tony Lux said Monday night any decision about closing school wouldn't be made until 5:30 a.m. today. Forecasts have been wrong before, he said, and a delay or closure may not be necessary.
Indiana State Trooper Mike Jones said there were a high number of slide-offs and crashes, but there weren't major injuries resulting from them. He said portions of U.S. 231, Interstate 80/94 throughout Lake County and roads in the western Porter County had the most problems.
An Illinois State Police sergeant said there were a lot of minor accidents on roads because of the snow and recommended drivers to stay home if they could. He said an emergency snow plan was activated, meaning that troopers were only handling personal injury or non-driveable property damage crashes. If a vehicle is damaged in accident but is drivable, a report should be made to state police within seven days.
The LaPorte County Sheriff's Office also reported a number of slide-offs on roadways. One injury accident happened on West County Road 1000 North west of Ind. 39, but the office didn't have information on how many people were in the accident or the severity of injuries. Most local police departments reached by 10 p.m. Monday said there weren't a large volume of accidents on roadways.
