The final flakes of snow with Friday’s powerful Chicago area winter storm fluttered earthward just past 1 p.m. in the city. The 6.2” accumulation at O’Hare was the biggest early season snow here since 1978. But, it was the west and northwest suburbs—well away from Lake Michigan’s warmth—which bore the brunt of the powerful system that only six days earlier had roared off the Pacific into Oregon, beginning a 3,500-mile trek south to Texas and then north into the Midwest.
Northeast winds off Lake Michigan and a layer of warm air aloft switched what could have been hours of snow in the city proper into sleet/rain Thursday night, cutting accumulations to half what they might have been. But snowfall, enhanced beneath embedded 32,000-foot thunderstorms, offered areas north and west little break from snow which slashed visibilities below 1⁄4 mile. A 15.2” total at Libertyville and 12” at Arlington Heights were among the heaviest reported.
--By Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
