15, 2022.Ĭhicago’s “abnormally snow-free” winter has been replaced by very wet conditions, Collis said. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago A person walks close to large waves lapping upon the seawall at Museum Campus during the first snowfall of the season on Nov. That means the city is “sitting on a tipping point,” where a warming planet will turn would-be snowfall into mostly rain, Collis said. Scott Collis, an atmospheric scientist who builds climate-tracking supercomputers at Argonne National Laboratory, said the lack of snow “is climate change in action.”Ĭhicago has winter temperatures that often hover around the freezing point of 32 degrees, Collis said.

You can never take your foot off the gas with snow.” We’re just two big storms away from catching up on inches. This has been a good winter,” Stallard said. 22, 2023.Ĭole Stallard, commissioner of the Department of Streets and Sanitation, said the agency has only used 135,000 of the 400,000 tons of salt it has on standby. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago Rain falls in Uptown on a wintery night on Feb. Gora prepares her business’s budget in the summer to cover situations where there’s low snowfall, but it’s been tough for her and the workers who are missing out on “bonus money,” she said. It definitely was a tougher winter for them.” “The crews have been calling and anxious to get working again. “In more than 10 winters, this is the least amount of snow and work we’ve seen,” Gora said. Kemora Landscapes’ snow crews have gone out just three times this winter, Gora said. Lawrence Ave., said the snow removal part of her business has ground to a halt. Marisa Gora, owner of Kemora Landscapes, 4635 W. “We’re on a cooler trend now and could cut down the snow gap, but it’ll be a stretch to make up quite a bit.” That’s mainly due to a weather pattern which is “wetter for areas out west this year,” bringing warmer air “over our neck of the woods” and making would-be-snow come through as mostly rain, Yack said. It was also 4 degrees warmer, on average. The city saw just 16.8 inches of snow this winter, well behind its 30-year average of 29.6 inches each winter, said Zachary Yack, a National Weather Service meteorologist. CHICAGO - Chicago’s brutal winter reputation may be a thing of the past.

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