It has actually been nine days with “measurable amounts” of snow, which, the National Weather Service explains, means 0.1 inches or more. That ties a record and marks just the third time it has happened since the agency began keeping records in 1885, said Stephen Rodriguez, a meteorologist.
The weather service issued a winter weather advisory Saturday night, and by 6 a.m. Sunday another 3 inches of snow blanketed the Chicago area, spurring travel warnings on the snow-covered roads. Most of the area awoke to find roads and sidewalks they had already painstakingly cleared, repeatedly, in need of yet another round of shoveling.
Officials had measured 3.2 inches at the weather station at O’Hare International Airport by 10:30 a.m., and Rodriguez said about one more inch was expected to fall by midday. But that should be it for a while, he said.
By nightfall, temperatures around the area are expected to drop significantly from the mid-20s to single digits downtown, and zero or subzero temperatures in the suburbs to the north, west and south, he said.
Friday’s winter storm dumped at least 6 inches across much of the city and suburbs, and resulted in mass school closings, dozens of crashes and at least 1,000 flights canceled.
The snow and cold weather also led to some cancellations at both O’Hare and Midway airports. As of 3:25 p.m., there had been 220 canceled flights at O’Hare and 263 canceled flights at Midway.
A review of the canceled flights suggested that all Southwest Airlines flights out of Midway had been canceled Sunday.
The Chicago area saw between 8 and 13 inches of snow over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
