Spring is here. Did winter even happen in Chicago this year?
A warmer and wetter than usual winter is complete. As spring gets underway, keep your umbrella handy, Chicago.
Chicago saw so little snow this year that residents didn’t even need the dibs system to reserve a parking spot — but the mild winter doesn’t mean the city is in for a warmer-than-normal spring.
This winter, which officially ended Monday with the start of spring, was more temperate and less snowy than normal, according to the National Weather Service. However, when accounting for rain and snow, the city measured 2.5 inches above the normal precipitation for winter, meteorologist Zachary Yack said.
“Basically, we just ended up being on the warmer side of a lot of our storm systems this winter, as opposed to being on the colder side, which would have given us more snow obviously,” Yack said.
While Chicago lags behind in snowfall this year, our Midwestern neighbors to the north are buried in deep banks. In Minneapolis, 80 inches of snow had fallen this winter as of March 12 — a whopping 36.8 inches more than what’s normal.
Chicago’s snowy season got an early start this year, with the first flakes spotted at O’Hare Airport in October. But since then, the city has received just 19.7 inches of snowfall, according to weather service data. That’s more than 15 inches less than normal. But, it’s not a record low — not by a long shot. The least snowy Chicago winter on record was back in the winter of 1920-1921, when just 9.8 inches fell. On the other extreme: Chicago has had three winters with 80 or more inches of snow, most recently in the winter of 2013-2014.
On the temperature front, this winter was warmer than usual. The season’s mean temperature was 31.8 degrees — 3.7 degrees warmer than normal, Yack said. For historical context: The warmest Chicago winter on record was back in 1877-1878, when the seasonal mean temperature was 37.2 degrees.
Yack said the warmer-and-wetter winter tracked with what meteorologists expected for this year, but it’s not necessarily indicative of what’s to come in future winters.
“There’s not any direct correlation between what happens one season compared to the next one,” Yack said. “This winter just happened to trend in this direction. Next year could either be similar or it could be completely different.”
The mild winter meant Chicago’s fleet of snowplows has been less in demand. The Department of Streets and Sanitation has used about 135,000 tons out of the 425,000 tons of salt it keeps on hand every winter, according to the department. But the fleet has still deployed 31 times (as compared to 38 times last winter) to respond to rainy, wet conditions that can lead to icy roads.
“In addition to snow, we also take into account the amount of salt we need for wintery mix weather like freezing rain, ice and sleet,” the department said in an email.
The unused salt will be tarped and stored at 19 salt piles across the city — ready for whatever next winter may bring. Or, because it’s Chicago, the possibility of spring snowstorms.
For now, you’re going to want to keep your umbrella handy. Chicago is also expected to have wetter-than-average weather in the months ahead, according to the annual spring outlook released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
As for temperature, the outlook is indeterminate with an equal possibility of spring leaning warmer or cooler than usual in Chicago.
Courtney Kueppers is a digital producer/reporter at WBEZ. Follow her @cmkueppers.
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Chicago, Climate Change & Weather
Spring is here. Did winter even happen in Chicago this year?
A warmer and wetter than usual winter is complete. As spring gets underway, keep your umbrella handy, Chicago.
Chicago saw so little snow this year that residents didn’t even need the dibs system to reserve a parking spot — but the mild winter doesn’t mean the city is in for a warmer-than-normal spring.
This winter, which officially ended Monday with the start of spring, was more temperate and less snowy than normal, according to the National Weather Service. However, when accounting for rain and snow, the city measured 2.5 inches above the normal precipitation for winter, meteorologist Zachary Yack said.
“Basically, we just ended up being on the warmer side of a lot of our storm systems this winter, as opposed to being on the colder side, which would have given us more snow obviously,” Yack said.
While Chicago lags behind in snowfall this year, our Midwestern neighbors to the north are buried in deep banks. In Minneapolis, 80 inches of snow had fallen this winter as of March 12 — a whopping 36.8 inches more than what’s normal.
Chicago’s snowy season got an early start this year, with the first flakes spotted at O’Hare Airport in October. But since then, the city has received just 19.7 inches of snowfall, according to weather service data. That’s more than 15 inches less than normal. But, it’s not a record low — not by a long shot. The least snowy Chicago winter on record was back in the winter of 1920-1921, when just 9.8 inches fell. On the other extreme: Chicago has had three winters with 80 or more inches of snow, most recently in the winter of 2013-2014.
On the temperature front, this winter was warmer than usual. The season’s mean temperature was 31.8 degrees — 3.7 degrees warmer than normal, Yack said. For historical context: The warmest Chicago winter on record was back in 1877-1878, when the seasonal mean temperature was 37.2 degrees.
Yack said the warmer-and-wetter winter tracked with what meteorologists expected for this year, but it’s not necessarily indicative of what’s to come in future winters.
“There’s not any direct correlation between what happens one season compared to the next one,” Yack said. “This winter just happened to trend in this direction. Next year could either be similar or it could be completely different.”
The mild winter meant Chicago’s fleet of snowplows has been less in demand. The Department of Streets and Sanitation has used about 135,000 tons out of the 425,000 tons of salt it keeps on hand every winter, according to the department. But the fleet has still deployed 31 times (as compared to 38 times last winter) to respond to rainy, wet conditions that can lead to icy roads.
“In addition to snow, we also take into account the amount of salt we need for wintery mix weather like freezing rain, ice and sleet,” the department said in an email.
The unused salt will be tarped and stored at 19 salt piles across the city — ready for whatever next winter may bring. Or, because it’s Chicago, the possibility of spring snowstorms.
For now, you’re going to want to keep your umbrella handy. Chicago is also expected to have wetter-than-average weather in the months ahead, according to the annual spring outlook released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
As for temperature, the outlook is indeterminate with an equal possibility of spring leaning warmer or cooler than usual in Chicago.
Courtney Kueppers is a digital producer/reporter at WBEZ. Follow her @cmkueppers.
Melba Lara: You're listening to WBEZ. Spring is officially here but what happened to winter? The season of cold and snow didn't have a whole lot of either in Chicago this year. In this week's climate conversation, WBEZ reporter Courtney Kueppers is here to compare this with our two years passed and to give us a heads up about what to expect this spring. And Courtney, I hope you got some good news for us.
Courtney Kueppers: Well, let's see.
Melba Lara: So first, let's talk about this mild winter that we had. We had snow early. It made some of us nervous, but overall how cold and snowy was it?
Courtney Kueppers: Yeah. Well, you may remember the snowy season actually started quite early this year. There were flakes spotted at a O'Hare way back on October 17th. But since then, we've had just 19.7 inches of snow in Chicago this winter. And for some context, that's about 15 inches less than what's normal. And then on the temperature front, this winter's mean temperature was about 31.8° and that's about 3.7° warmer than what's usual, according to the National Weather Service.
Melba Lara: So less snow, a little bit warmer. How does this winter than compared to other winters in Chicago?
Courtney Kueppers: Yeah. Well, this is not the least snowy winter on record. For that, you'd have to go all the way back to the winter of 1920 to 1921. And that winter, Chicago measured just 9.8 inches of snow. But on the other extreme, there have been winters that Chicago has had more than 80 inches of snow and that happened as recently as 2013 to 2014. And actually this winter was wetter than usual though, when accounting for both snow and rain. It was about 2.5 inches more than what's normal.
Melba Lara: And Courtney, we're pretty lucky in Illinois, if you don't like shoveling snow, but that wasn't necessarily true for other states. Right?
Courtney Kueppers: Yeah, that's right. Up in Minneapolis, they had 80 inches of snowfall this winter. That's a whopping 36.8 inches of snow, more than what's normal. And then in parts of Michigan, they also saw about 25 inches more than what's normal.
Melba Lara: And Courtney, we know with climate change, Illinois' climate is getting warmer and wetter over time. Does that mean that we can expect future winters are going to be like this one?
Courtney Kueppers: Not definitively. Zachary Yack, who's a meteorologist at the National Weather Service told me that one season doesn't necessarily predict future seasons. Next winter could be similar or it could be entirely different. But we do know overall winters in Illinois are trending to be about 2-3° warmer.
Melba Lara: So, let's hear some weather predictions for the weeks ahead. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently released an outlook for spring. Should we expect more of the same?
Courtney Kueppers: Yeah, definitely keep your umbrella handy. The Chicago area is expecting a wetter than normal spring, but it's less clear what we can expect on the temperature front. The outlook looks about equal possibility for a warmer or cooler spring in Chicago this year.
Melba Lara: Courtney Kueppers is a digital reporter and producer at WBEZ. Thanks for bringing us this update on winters now, and in the future.
Courtney Kueppers: Thanks Melba.
Melba Lara: If you have a question about our region's climate that you want us to answer, you can email climate@wbez.org. This is WBEZ.
WBEZ transcripts are generated by an automatic speech recognition service. We do our best to edit for misspellings and typos, but mistakes do come through.