A bit of a break: The snow and freezing rain will end for today but temperatures will remain on the cold side as we see the calm before another storm heads our way. Highs will be in the middle to upper 20s this afternoon with clearing skies tonight and the snow on the ground it looks like lows could be in the single digits in some locations.

A rough Thursday night and Friday morning?
Low pressure is making it's way northward by Thursday night and Friday morning. Most of the time that means warmer air for us. But this is kind of a complicated pattern as warm air will override the cold air at first and this is a set up for freezing rain.

Here's a couple of diagrams to explain this:

The pink represents snow on this diagram with the blue the warmer middle atmosphere. As the snow falls it melts in this middle atmosphere and then falls as rain (the green). As this liquid touches the freezing surface it freezes on impact and that's what the definition of freezing rain is. Many people think freezing rain is what is know as ice pellets or sleet.
Here is a temperature profile as the snow melts then falls into a freezing layer and because rain is not pure water, (it's actually a solution of dust and water) it doesn't freeze in the lower atmosphere and stays liquid until it hits a freezing surface then turns to ice.

It looks like freezing rain will be short lived as temperatures will rise into the 40s by Friday morning. They will quickly fall by Friday afternoon and the rain will change to snow.

The Weekend:

Another blast of colder air will bring temperatures into the 20s again but in the process to opening the gateway of cold air from the Arctic Circle. Southern moisture is coming in Sunday with a system moving across the plains by afternoon. It will quickly move across our area by Sunday evening. As far as heavy snowfall, this track is going to limit very heavy snowfall but it will turn bitterly cold.

You can see the bitter cold air coming in by Monday morning with 850 mb temperatures at -16 Celsius.