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.
