Travel was a nightmare Wednesday over sections of the area as snow combined with
plummeting temperatures to coat many thoroughfares from Rockford into Chicago's
west and northwest suburbs with ice. Conditions became so treacherous that a section
of Illinois Highway 25 in Carpen- tersville and a stretch of Randall Road in Geneva and
St. Charles had to be closed after a rash of accidents and spinouts. Snowfall reached
0.6 inches late Wednesday at O’Hare and Midway—the month's heaviest single-day
tally and the most significant snow since 1.9 inches on Jan. 28.
Until Wednesday, only 9 other Februaries over the past 124 years had produced so little
snow through mid-month. The snow drought didn’t last. Seven of those 9 Februaries
were followed by significant snowfalls (4 inches or more) before the snow season
ended. Typically a quarter (27%) of Chicago's seasonal snow falls after Feb. 19—and a
significant accumulation appears headed this way Friday night into Saturday.
SINGLE-DIGIT WINDCHILL THURSDAY
Thermometer readings struggle to escape the teens as gusty winds limit windchills to 4
degrees below zero to 6 degrees while delivering lake snow showers to portions of the
Indiana/Michigan snowbelt.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
