An area of low pressure tracking from the Central Plains eastward into the Tennessee River Valley brought a period of accumulating snow to southeast Illinois from the evening of February 15th through the afternoon of February 16th. to Olney line, where amounts of 8 to 9 inches were common.
Every event with a place to put it; 6 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS ILX wrote it up.
An area of low pressure tracking from the Central Plains eastward into the Tennessee River Valley brought a period of accumulating snow to southeast Illinois from the evening of February 15th through the afternoon of February 16th. The heaviest snow fell along and southwest of an Effingham...to Newton...to Olney line, where amounts of 8 to 9 inches were common.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Lincoln, IL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 15, 5:40 PM CST, 2 hours 20 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL 540 PM CST Sun Feb 15 2015 .SHORT TERM...(Tonight) ISSUED AT 315 PM CST SUN FEB 15 2015 Developing winter storm will begin to impact parts of the KILX CWA tonight, with accumulating snow expected south of the I-72 corridor. Vigorous short-wave trough evident on 20z/2pm water vapor imagery dropping southeastward through Utah will eject into the Plains tonight, creating an area of enhanced lift/forcing and eventually wintry precip. 18z NAM continues to show a band of 700mb frontogenetical forcing developing across north-central Missouri into south-central Illinois this evening. Strongest forcing appears to be setting up along/south of a Saint Louis to Evansville line overnight into Monday morning. Airmass is initially quite dry, so precip will be slow to start. Upstream obs across Missouri show thickening/lowering clouds, but no precip reaching the ground as of yet. High-res models have been consistently showing light snow developing across Missouri between 21z and 00z, then further east into Illinois after 00z. Due to a persistent dry easterly flow ahead of the system, there will be a sharp cut-off on the northern end of the precip area. Previous model runs had shifted the snow a bit further northward: however, both the 12z and 18z guidance seems to have settled on a Rushville...to Lincoln...to Paris line as the northernmost extent of the precip. Robust lift will be confined to locations further south, generally along/south of the I-70 corridor. Have therefore gone with categorical PoPs there, decreasing to just slight chance near I-72 and completely dry further north across the remainder of the area. Nighttime accumulations will range from 1 to 2 inches along/south of a Jacksonville...to Mattoon...to Marshall line, with as much as 3 to 4 inches south of an Effingham to Robinson line. Additional accumulations will occur Monday morning before the system departs. && .LONG TERM...(Monday through Sunday) ISSUED AT 315 PM CST SUN FEB 15 2015 Isentropic lift continuing into southeast Illinois through the morning hours Monday while strong frontogenetical forcing continues and an upper level shortwave approaches via the Rocky Mountain area for the afternoon. This will keep persistent precipitation into the afternoon before subsidence behind the shortwave begins to diminish precipitation from west to east Monday afternoon and evening. Time-height plots over the area show that a favorable dendritic growth zone will be in place for much of this event meaning that the snow should be fairly light and fluffy, resulting in deep accumulations given the precipitation amounts. As a result, storm total accumulations of 6-8 inches can be expected along and south of highway 50, while lesser amounts are expected to the north, with accumulating snow of 1-2 inches potentially as far north as Springfield. A winter storm warning continues in the central Illinois forecast area for Effingham to Crawford counties south to Clay through Lawrence counties until 6 p.m., while a winter weather advisory continues for the row of counties to the north. The trickiest part of this forecast is that with the surface low tracking by to the south along with the heaviest precipitation, a strong gradient in precipitation amounts will be in place through the southern half of the forecast area resulting in some uncertainty in exact forecast amounts depending on slight variations in the storm track. Once the Monday system passes by, a deep upper level trough will situate over the central and eastern U.S. for the remainder of the week, and a widespread arctic air mass will remain coincident with this feature, while reinforcing waves of arctic air continue to move through central Illinois. A couple of weak upper-level disturbances may bring some snow flurries Tuesday to Wednesday. Highs should reach the 20s and upper teens Monday and Tuesday, then very cold air will arrive for Wednesday and Thursday with highs in the upper single digits and teens. Wind chills around -15 F are expected Wednesday morning in the northern half of the state, spreading all the way in to southeast IL by Thursday morning, potentially yielding the lowest wind chill readings of the winter so far in southeast IL. The deep trough moves east for Friday through the weekend allowing temperatures to become less unusually cold. The next weather system is progged by most models to move mainly south of the area next weekend, although uncertainty with the track indicates a chance this system will bring precipitation to central Illinois Friday night through Sunday. && .AVIATION...(For the 00Z TAFS through 00Z Monday evening) ISSUED AT 535 PM CST SUN FEB 15 2015 VFR conditions expected across our I-74 TAF sites while MVFR cigs in light snow will prevail later this evening for SPI and DEC. Latest radar indicating a developing band of snow to our south with surface reports now indicating snow reaching the ground over parts of north central Missouri and tracking east. It still appears SPI and DEC will be on the northern fringe of the snow tonight with our northern TAF sites staying out of any snowfall with this system. Rather sharp cutoff to the VFR and MVFR cat cigs with this system with the latest HRRR and RUC models now suggesting more low VFR cigs for our southern TAF sites. Not going to make any changes with the current idea for MVFR cigs for SPI and DEC with SPI the first to see the snow early this evening. The snow should begin to shift south of SPI and DEC around the 12-14z time frame Monday as the system starts to pull away from our area with VFR conditions in all areas by late morning thru the afternoon. Surface winds will be east to northeast at 7 to 12 kts tonight and then will back into a more northerly direction on Monday with again wind speeds on the light side, generally around 10 kts or less. && .ILX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY until 6 PM CST Monday FOR ILZ052-061>063. WINTER STORM WARNING until 6 PM CST Monday FOR ILZ066>068- 071>073. && SHORT TERM...Barnes LONG TERM...Onton AVIATION...Smith
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL 311 PM CST SUN FEB 15 2015 ILZ027>031-036>038-040>051-053>057-161200- CASS-CHAMPAIGN-COLES-DE WITT-DOUGLAS-EDGAR-FULTON-KNOX-LOGAN- MACON-MARSHALL-MASON-MCLEAN-MENARD-MORGAN-MOULTRIE-PEORIA-PIATT- SANGAMON-SCHUYLER-SCOTT-STARK-TAZEWELL-VERMILION-WOODFORD- 311 PM CST SUN FEB 15 2015 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS AND EAST CENTRAL ILLINOIS. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT A DEVELOPING STORM SYSTEM WILL PASS SOUTH OF ILLINOIS TONIGHT INTO MONDAY. LIGHT SNOW WILL BE POSSIBLE AS FAR NORTH AS A RUSHVILLE...TO DECATUR...TO PARIS LINE...WITH THE HEAVIER SNOW REMAINING FURTHER SOUTH TOWARD THE I-70 CORRIDOR. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY ANOTHER SURGE OF ARCTIC AIR WILL ARRIVE BY THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK...WITH SUB-ZERO WIND-CHILLS ONCE AGAIN LIKELY BY TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE REQUIRED THROUGH TONIGHT. ILZ052-061>063-161200- CHRISTIAN-CLARK-CUMBERLAND-SHELBY- 311 PM CST SUN FEB 15 2015 ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CST MONDAY... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS AND EAST CENTRAL ILLINOIS. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT LIGHT SNOW WILL DEVELOP ACROSS THE AREA THIS EVENING THEN CONTINUE THROUGH THE OVERNIGHT HOURS. 1 TO 2 INCHES OF SNOW IS EXPECTED BY DAWN. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY LIGHT SNOW WILL PERSIST THROUGH MONDAY MORNING, BEFORE GRADUALLY TAPERING OFF AND COMING TO AN END BY AFTERNOON. STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS WILL RANGE FROM 3 TO 5 INCHES. MOTORISTS ARE ADVISED TO BE PREPARED FOR SNOW-COVERED AND HAZARDOUS ROAD CONDITIONS DURING THE MONDAY MORNING COMMUTE. ANOTHER SURGE OF ARCTIC AIR WILL ARRIVE BY THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK...WITH SUB-ZERO WIND-CHILLS ONCE AGAIN LIKELY BY TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE REQUIRED THROUGH TONIGHT...ALTHOUGH SNOWFALL REPORTS WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. ILZ066>068-071>073-161200- CLAY-CRAWFORD-EFFINGHAM-JASPER-LAWRENCE-RICHLAND- 311 PM CST SUN FEB 15 2015 ...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CST MONDAY... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT SNOW WILL DEVELOP ACROSS THE AREA THIS EVENING THEN CONTINUE THROUGH THE OVERNIGHT HOURS. 2 TO 3 INCHES OF SNOW IS EXPECTED BY DAWN. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY SNOW WILL PERSIST THROUGH MONDAY AFTERNOON, BEFORE GRADUALLY TAPERING OFF AND COMING TO AN END BY EVENING. STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS WILL RANGE FROM 6 TO 8 INCHES. MOTORISTS ARE ADVISED TO BE PREPARED FOR SNOW-COVERED AND HAZARDOUS ROAD CONDITIONS DURING THE MONDAY MORNING COMMUTE. ANOTHER SURGE OF ARCTIC AIR WILL ARRIVE BY THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK...WITH SUB-ZERO WIND-CHILLS ONCE AGAIN LIKELY BY TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE REQUIRED THROUGH TONIGHT...ALTHOUGH SNOWFALL REPORTS WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. BARNES
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
4 heavy snow, 2 winter weather. Local standard time, as filed.
Weather observers measured between 8 and 9 inches of snow across the northern half of Clay County, including 9.0 inches in Hord. Numerous traffic accidents occurred due to snow-covered and hazardous roadways.
Weather observers measured between 8 and 9 inches of snow across Richland County. Numerous traffic accidents occurred due to snow-covered and hazardous roadways.
Weather observers measured between 8 and 9 inches of snow across the southeastern half of Effingham County, including 9.0 inches in Mason, 8.9 inches in Watson, and 8.5 inches in Altamont. Numerous traffic accidents occurred due to snow-covered and hazardous roadways.
Weather observers measured around 8 inches of snow across Jasper County, including 8.0 inches in Newton. Numerous traffic accidents occurred due to snow-covered and hazardous roadways.
Weather observers measured between 5 and 6 inches of snow across Crawford County, including 6.0 inches 3 miles west of Robinson. Numerous traffic accidents occurred due to snow-covered and hazardous roadways.
Weather observers measured between 5 and 6 inches of snow across Lawrence County, including 5.7 inches 1 mile west of Lawrenceville. Numerous traffic accidents occurred due to snow-covered and hazardous roadways.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Illinois in 2015Every state in 2015This day in weather historyWarnings in Illinois, February 2015
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 560835, 560838, 560836, 560837, 560839, 560840.