This is my forecast for 5pm CST Christmas Eve. It will be snowing from Green Bay to Milwaukee to Chicago and northwest Indiana. There will also be an area of very heavy snow falling in northwest Lower Michigan. Very windy conditions will cause drifting snow and poor visibility. There is little doubt in my mind there will be travel delays at the Chicago area and Milwaukee airports. Road conditions will be very poor in the area with snow and high winds. Winds will be especially strong where the solid black lines (isobars = lines of equal barometric pressure) are close together.

Below, I posted the NWS Storm Prediction Center tornado risk map. They have increased the risk. The 10% area (5% is the significant threshold) includes New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Mobile, and Gulfport. This forecast is valid through tonight.

UPDATE: 10:55AM radar. Three tornado warnings in effect. Take cover in these areas! -ORIGINAL POSTING- We are now getting tornado warnings. The red polygons are tornado warnings. Take cover in these areas! Yellow polygons are severe thunderstorm warnings. Please don't think that because it is winter that tornadoes cannot occur. On Christmas Day 2012 a tornado did considerable damage in downtown Mobile, Alabama. I am not  live-blogging the storms. Please monitor local weather sources for the latest warning information.

This tornado watch is in effect until 6pm. Please keep up on local warnings when thunderstorms approach.

As of 8:53am CST: LaGuardia: 1 hr., 26 minute average flight delay Newark, 1 hr. 27 minutes Philadelphia, 1 hr. 50 minutes Atlanta, 15 minutes Houston Bush, 45 minutes San Francisco, 15 minutes

The reason Interstate 70 is void of automobiles is because it is closed from Goodland, Kansas, to Denver, Colorado, due to whiteout conditions. Please check local sources for additional information.

At this point, I don't see any reason to change my original travel forecasts for today and Christmas Eve . I continue to believe that several inches of snow will fall in Chicago and Milwaukee which have the potential to snarl air traffic involving those cities.