Thursday-Friday: Another frickin' foot of snow

It could be worse. I could be in Las Vegas, where they just got slammed with a record snowfall causing school cancellations for the first time in 30 years.

A rare snowstorm blanketed the Las Vegas Valley on Wednesday, delaying flights, causing widespread fender-benders and canceling events. As much as 8 inches of snow fell in parts of the valley, forecasters said this morning.

The rarities continued Wednesday night with the Clark County School District's announcement that students are getting a snow day today. It's the first snow day for Clark County students since 1979, when a storm dropped 9.9 inches of snow in January that year.

With ice and snow on the roads, and district buses responsible for transporting more than 80,000 students, closing school was the prudent move, Superintendent Walt Rulffes said.

Here's the latest breaking news alert for the storm about to hit Chicago.

The National Weather Service has pushed back its winter storm warning by four hours. Instead of starting at 3 p.m., it will start at 7 p.m.

As before, the warning ends at noon Friday, meaning the pain may only be delayed until the morning commute. As much as a foot of snow is predicted for some parts of the metropolitan area.

Precipitation -- in the form of snow mixed with sleet and freezing rain -- is expected to begin south of a line connecting Dixon to Joliet to Rensselaer, Ind., early this evening. It will cross into far north-central and northeast Illinois -- including the Rockford and Chicago areas -- by mid-evening, the weather service forecast.

Snow is expected in the northern portions of the area. A mixture of sleet, snow and freezing rain is expected between Interstate Highway 80 and Interstate Highway 88, with significant snow and ice accumulations.

Total snowfall by mid-morning Friday is expected to be about a foot along the Wisconsin-Illinois border, 8 to 12 inches from the North Side of Chicago west through DeKalb, and 5 to 9 inches from the far southern suburbs into Northwest Indiana, the weather service said.

Lesser snow accumulations -- between 1 and 5 inches -- are expected south of Interstate 80, but significant icing will be more of a problem in this region, the weather service said, with a quarter- to a half-inch.

Everyone seems to be feuding this days, mainly Jake and Shack. They probably have their reasons. Well, I'm not going to get into that right now but if you're going to complain about the weather, try moving north where they cut the budget for salt and because the storm hits at rush hour while snow is coming with two inches an hour, interstates don't get plowed til ten PM. I'm just saying. You can watch the Chicago alderman deliver their less than stellar reviews of this past storm.