Chicago’s bitter cold is on its way out for now, but the more than 20 inches of snow left over from the blizzard will take a bit longer to disappear. Samuel Shea is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. He said he doesn’t expect any major issues with the snowmelt. 

 “A lot of things can come into play when you’re looking for a faster snow melt, one of those things is if we happen to get a big rainstorm falling over the snow that’ll really help to melt it a lot faster,” he said. “Good news is from what I’m looking at here into next week will have some light showers but we won’t have any heavy rainfall events.”

Shea says daytime highs are expected to reach 30 degrees on Saturday and into the mid 30’s on Sunday. But the real warm up comes Tuesday or Wednesday when temperatures could crack 40. A spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation says the department is not anticipating any major issues with melting snow, but Shea said it’s important to keep an eye on the forecast, as weather conditions can change quickly.

The National Weather Service will issue a new spring hydrologic outlook next week to determine how melting snow from the blizzard will impact river conditions.