Dry For Many, But Lake Effect Snow For Some
If February in Chicago feels particularly snowy, you're right. After the latest snowstorm, the city has seen a winter’s worth of snow in the past three weeks alone.
In the last 22 days, 36.2 inches of snow fell on Chicago. Typically the city averages 36 inches of snow for an entire season. Comparatively, in the previous 122 days, we saw 8.6 inches.
So is this the snowiest winter Chicago has ever had? Not quite.
As of Tuesday morning, Chicago clocked 44.8 inches of snow so far for the season, according to NBC 5 meteorologist Paul Deanno. Totals are measured at O'Hare International Airport. That includes 7.5 inches from this week's storm alone.
That seasonal snowfall puts us between the 1893-1894 season (44.4 inches) and the 1896-1897 season (45.0 inches) to rank 38th among snowiest seasons.
Plenty more snow fell across the region in other parts of the Chicago area. For latest snow totals in your area, click here.
Here are the Top 10 Chicago snowfalls of all time, according to the National Weather Service:
- 89.7 inches: 1978-1979
- 82.3 inches: 1977-1978
- 82.0 inches: 2013-2014
- 77.0 inches: 1969-1970
- 68.4 inches: 1966-1967
- 66.4 inches: 1951-1952
- 64.1 inches: 1917-1918
- 60.3 inches: 2007-2008
- 59.5 inches: 1964-1965
- 59.5 inches: 1903-1904
Here's how much snow has fallen in the past five seasons:
- 34.8 inches: 2019-2020
- 49.5 inches: 2018-2019
- 36.1 inches: 2017-2018
- 26.1 inches: 2016-2017
- 31.2 inches: 2015-2016
Parts of the Chicago area saw well over a foot of snow Monday night into Tuesday, with some snowfall totals reaching as high as 18 inches, as the latest round of winter weather blanketed the region.
Local
As of Tuesday, the city has seen nine straight days of measurable snowfall recorded at O'Hare Airport.
That ties the record for consecutive days with measurable snow in the city, which was set between Feb. 3-11 in 2018, according to the National Weather Service.
Should the city see at least .1 inches of snow fall Wednesday, a possibility as a weak system could bring small amounts to the area in the evening hours, a new record will be set.
