A major winter storm is expected to hit the Chicago area ahead of Christmas, with blizzard-like conditions in some places, dangerous wind chills and at least half a foot of snow. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch extending from Thursday evening through Saturday morning. “Confidence continues to increase that a major winter storm will impact the western Great Lakes region Thursday through Saturday with heavy snow, strong winds and bitterly cold temperatures,” the weather service said. “The worst conditions will develop Thursday evening and continue into Friday evening, with a full-fledged blizzard possible accompanied by dangerously cold temperatures,” it said. “The bitterly cold temperatures will continue through the weekend.” The storm is expected to begin as a mix of rain and snow Thursday afternoon, changing to just snow later into the night, when the low is expected to fall to 4 degrees. The current forecast is for the heaviest snow to fall Friday, driven by high winds as strong as 55 miles an hour that could create blizzard-like conditions. The high will only be near 8. The snow should taper off Christmas Eve, but the high will only reach around 10 degrees and the low around zero. Christmas Day is expected to be mostly sunny, with a high near 11. Read the full story through the link in our bio. Story: Sun-Times Wire Photo: Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times