Snowfall on the Way. Much colder and stormier pattern.

For all you snow lovers out there, this may be your chance for a significant snowfall event that will not be destroyed by rain or any other factors.  In fact, snowfall totals may be the highest of the entire season in some parts of the area.  Right now, for the rest of today through early Thursday morning, expect off and on light rain to continue.  I am NOT expecting much in the way of rainfall as most of the moisture will be confined to east of the area.  What's happening is that a very strong upper level closed way is moving through the southeast.  This is what is causing a rather deep storm system to form at the surface, with a central pressure of 996 millibars.  On the other hand, a rather strong and robust upper level system in the northern stream is intensifying and moving quickly southward out of Canada.  As this system attempts to phase with the southern stream system, rapid cyclogenesis of yet another surface low pressure system will commence just to the north of us.  At the same time, it will draw in extremely cold arctic air, with much below average temperatures.  As its associated arctic front races through the area tomorrow morning, expect a quick transition from rain to light snow in about an hour's time.  This snow will taper off for a few hours before the second system brings in bands of moderate to heavy snow.  Even though this system does not have an ideal amount of moisture associated with it, high snow to water ratios, intense lifting, and lake enhancement, will create an environment capable of producing moderate to heavy snowfall amounts and high winds.  By Thursday evening, temperatures will drop into the 20's as snow begins once again, at the same winds will increase quite a bit, with winds of 30-35 mph, creating near blizzard conditions especially west of Fort Wayne.  These bands of snow will continue to move through the area Thursday night into Friday, with about 2-5 inches on Thursday night (according to the GFS and NAM guidance) and another 1-3 inches on Friday, mainly Fort Wayne and west.  Overall, the National Weather Service is expecting 3-6 inches south of Route 6 to just south of Fort Wayne, with possibly 6-12 inches north of this line and west of Angola (due to lake effect), with parts of extreme northern Ohio picking up between 4-7 inches (this may seem a little high, and I really am skeptical of this amount of snowfall).  After the main snowfall event ends area wide Friday afternoon, lake effect snow will continue in many areas especially west of the Indiana state line, even though it is likely that some of the snow showers will make it into Northwest Ohio, bringing additional snowfall totals.  I will try to have another update by tomorrow night.