Chicago picked up its snow shovels again Sunday morning after the city was blanketed with up to 5 inches of snow in what a meteorologist at the National Weather Service called the “quickest start to winter” since 1978.
Three to 5 inches of snow fell across the metro area into Sunday morning, with northern suburbs seeing up to 7 inches of snow. Accumulated snowfall at Chicago O’Hare this season reached 17.1 inches on Sunday, according to meteorologist Zachary Yack.
Temperatures in the city Sunday are expected to be in the higher 20s and lower teens with winds between 20 to 25 mph, while the suburbs could be seeing single digits Sunday night.
A Winter Weather Advisory that went into effect at midnight Saturday expired at around 11 a.m. after the snow let up, according to Yack, who advised people to limit their time outdoors due to the cold.
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“We’ve had a couple of big systems here in short succession, one after Thanksgiving and then this recent one that happened last night, both of which overperformed ever so slightly,” said Yack.
“So it’s given us a good chunk of our snow, that we would expect to see kind of spread out over the course of the early part of the season, in a matter of nine days.”
A cold spell is expected to hit the city on Friday and Saturday, with temperatures reaching below-zero, according to Yack.
In response to the snow, the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation said it deployed more than 220 salt-spreading trucks primarily on main roads and that it will be transitioning to clearing residential streets.
“DSS staff will continue to monitor the weather and ground conditions and will adjust resources as needed,” the department said in a statement Saturday. “Residents are urged to exercise caution while traveling. Please allow extra time and drive according to conditions, leaving ample space between vehicles.”
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