![]() “It makes snow less likely than more likely.” “We could see record snowfall next year, but what climate change does is that it rolls the dice,” Collis said. The science points towards a city that’s making a “long, steady march towards a more snow-free winter,” Collis said. So a warming climate means we’re more likely to get clouds, and clouds overnight are really good at trapping heat like a blanket on Chicago’s coldest days,” Collis said. “The leading theory why is that warmer air holds more moisture. Lake Michigan has also seen record-low ice levels this winter, Collis said.Īnd winters in Chicago are warming significantly faster than summers, Collis said. 15, 2022.Ĭhicago’s “abnormally snow-free” winter has been replaced by very wet conditions, Collis said.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. A big snowstorm is “never out of the question, even in mild winters.CHICAGO - Chicago’s brutal winter reputation may be a thing of the past. There are also signs that La Niña may be ending, and that the polar vortex could send in another wave of cold air, both of which may herald somewhat better odds of a snow day, he said. February is the snowiest month in the mid-Atlantic, and, of course, snow can still arrive in March and even April. There’s still a chance for decent snow along the East Coast, said David Robinson, New Jersey’s state climatologist and a professor at Rutgers University. Both cities have recorded a season’s first measurable snow as far out as mid-February. Washington and Baltimore also typically see snow by mid-December, but late first snowfalls are slightly more common. 3 - except for the winter of 1972–73, when the city got no measurable snow at all. The latest that Philadelphia has seen its first snowfall for a season is Feb. With this dearth of snow, New York has fallen more than a month behind its average pace: The city usually sees snow by mid-December. “A lot has to come together right to get snow along the coast,” Mr. ![]() ![]() But it’s also true that snowfall varies immensely season to season, and that luck - good or bad, depending on how you feel about snow - has had a hand in this season’s snow drought.
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