Bursts of visibility-slashing lake-effect snow descended on Chicago and parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana counties bordering Lake Michigan, generating stunning weather variations across the area Wednesday. While cold, snow-free weather was front and center over a majority of the metro area, the weather seesawed dramatically between near whiteout conditions one moment and bright sun the next over a narrow corridor 220 miles long and less than 20 miles wide, originating to Chicago’s north over central Lake Michigan, then extending south/southwest into Lake, Cook and Will counties in Illinois and east to Lake County, Indiana. Radar scanned cloud tops as high as 9,000 feet—twice the height of flurry-generating lake-effect clouds. Several inches accumulated at hardest-hit locations.
Residents shivered with a 30° high here for only the second time in 2006 (the other occurred Jan. 23). By this time a year ago, there had been 14 highs below 30°.
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
