February couldn’t be more different than January in terms of Chicago area snowfall. Measurable snow fell on 11 days last month and totaled 29.1” at Midway Airport, making it the site’s fourth snowiest January since 1928. At the other end of the city, O’Hare’s 27.8” tally finished nearly two and a half times normal for the month! The total was equivalent to nearly three-quarters (73%) the normal snowfall for an entire snow season.. What a difference we’ve seen in just the past few weeks! February, 2005—nearly three weeks old—has hosted only 0.5”. The tally is so paltry that only 14 other Februarys (of 120 on record) have hosted similarly anemic totals in the opening two and a half weeks of the month.
Thursday’s 27° and 19° extremes produced this month’s first sub-normal daily average temp—the first time a sub-normal reading has been logged here since Jan. 27.
-Tom Skilling
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
