In the understated vocabulary of those whose job it is to study the weather, the snow that swept the Chicago area Friday was a “precipitation event.”
For those trying to get around, the latest storm amounted to yet another miserable day in a season that seems to be conspiring against pedestrians, motorists, air travelers and anyone venturing beyond their front door besides cross-country skiers.
Despite the pervasive Olympic spirit, there will be little comfort in the fact that this month’s snowfall has set a record in Chicago for a February-25 inches, including Friday’s 6.4 inches recorded at O’Hare International Airport as of 7 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. And areas north of the city were hit with nearly twice that. The old February record in Chicago was reached in 1967, when 21.6 inches of snow fell.
Coming in the wake of a few precious springlike days this month, the latest assault of nasty weather also amounted to a betrayal, shattering hopes of slipping into bathing suits any time soon.
“You’ve got to remember,” lamented Rick Dime, Orland Park’s public service director, “we had no snow on the ground at the beginning of the week, and now we’re going to have 18 to 20 inches when it’s all over.
“We just hope we can sand and salt and then let Mother Nature and the sun take their course.”
According to climatologists, “precipitation events” like Friday’s are the result of the unpredictable and sometimes merciless route traveled by various jetstreams that course through the atmosphere. The 40.6 inches of snow that has fallen in Chicago this year-slightly above the annual average of 38 inches-can be attributed to a volatile combination of jetstreams carrying arctic air and moisture that have been clashing over the middle of the U.S.
“The pattern has been persistent for seven weeks, and we’ve been paying the price,” said Mark Rhein, a weather forecaster with the Central Weather Service. Like many residents of the six-county area, Rhein couldn’t see much outside his Wheeling office Friday besides white bursts of blowing snow.
But as Wayne Wendland, climatologist with the State Water Survey, explained: “The real question, and one none of us can answer, is what caused these things to happen this year? We don’t know.”
The storm began about 7:30 a.m. and quickly built in intensity, dropping as much as 2 inches of snow in an hour, Rhein said. By midafternoon, a blizzard warning was issued for the Chicago area by the National Weather Service when winds reached speeds in excess of 50 m.p.h., primarily in areas south and southwest of the city, Rhein said.
“How prepared can you get for this?” asked Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Jay Eichholzer. “You read the weather bulletins and you just say to yourself, `Oh no, not again.’ “
By late afternoon, state troopers were waving southbound motorists off Interstate Highway 57 at U.S. Highway 30 because of the bad conditions to the south.
Thunder and lightning were reported in some locations. Wendland said thunderstorms can occur whenever there is enough moist tropical air swept into the Chicago area from the Gulf of Mexico.
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While the gulf might have been an appropriate vacation destination, getting there, or anyplace, was difficult Friday. Poor visibility grounded dozens of flights and stranded hundreds of passengers at O’Hare International and Midway Airports.
The Federal Aviation Administration halted all Midway flights between 9:45 a.m. and 1:40 p.m., said Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Lisa Howard, creating a passenger backlog that extended well into the evening.
At O’Hare, only 30 percent to 40 percent of the day’s departures were expected to make it out.
Even getting to the airports was complicated by the weather.
Chicago Transit Authority traffic in and out of O’Hare was blocked for more than two hours Friday after two trains malfunctioned due to the weather, CTA spokeswoman Rosemarie Gulley said.
About the only people who relished the snow were snow lovers, and entrepreneurs who targeted the snow-weary.
Cross-country retailers in the northern suburbs were reporting inventory shortages.
In Hoffman Estates, a pet store was moving dozens of pairs of “doggie booties,” a hot seller this winter.
Also pleased were snowmobilers.
Jeff Morris, 32, of Hanover Park said he has snowmobiled 200 miles in one day.
Morris, expressing an alternative opinion to this season’s hassles and whiteouts, added: “This winter’s great.”
When he wakes up Saturday, it will still be here. As much as 8 more inches of snow were expected overnight within 5 miles of the lakefront. And forecasters predicted unseasonable cold, with high temperatures only in the low 20s.