Snow and rain dampen Santa’s approach this weekend

Snow and rain may dampen the holiday weekend for the metro-east, according to weather reports.

The National Weather Service issued a hazardous weather outlook warning of rain mixing with snow beginning Friday night. The warning includes 18 Illinois counties, including St. Clair and Madison, as well as much of eastern Missouri.

Rain is expected to mix with snow Friday night with dusting up to three inches across eastern Missouri and southwestern Illinois, though the highest amount is expected along the I-44 corridor southwest of St. Louis, according to the National Weather Service. The chance of precipitation for Belleville is 90 percent.

While snow is expected to end Saturday morning, slick roads may persist into the morning hours. More snow of 1-3 inches is expected late Saturday and Sunday morning. Saturday will be a little warmer with a high of 40 degrees, and mostly cloudy with a low of 25 degrees Saturday night. Sunday has a 30 percent chance of snow with a high of 32 degrees, then partly sunny and colder through Christmas Day and into next week. By Tuesday, temperatures will top out at 30 degrees with overnight lows of 13 degrees.

For those traveling, snow is expected to hit the northeast hard on Christmas Day, with winter storm Dylan hitting New England in time for the holiday ranging from one inch in New York to a foot of snow in northern Vermont. Snow is already falling in New England, according to the Weather Channel, but will include freezing rain overnight. Light snow is expected from eastern Colorado across the Midwest and central plains regions, but it could mean the first Christmas Day snowfall of more than an inch for Boston in 15 years.

This story was originally published December 22, 2017 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Snow and rain dampen Santa’s approach this weekend."