Extreme cold, snow and a Bears game at Soldier Field

It’s right here, Chicago.

By Thursday evening, 1 to 2 inches of snow had collected throughout the Chicago space, mentioned meteorologist Jake Peter from the Nationwide Climate Service of Chicago. At O’Hare Worldwide Airport, 1.1 inches had been recorded whereas 1.5 inches have been reported nearer downtown. Wind chills have been anticipated to drop to detrimental 35 levels.

Airways canceled dozens of flights scheduled for Friday out of the 2 Chicago airports. By late afternoon Thursday, 544 flights scheduled for Thursday had been canceled at O’Hare and 255 had been canceled at Halfway, in line with the web site FlightAware.

Right here’s what it is advisable to know concerning the climate, a white Christmas, previous chilly snaps and extra.

Thursday introduced the first major winter blast of the season, a storm that crawled throughout the center of the nation, disrupting journey, upending vacation planning and shuttering much-loved vacation sights together with town’s Christkindlmarket.

Though forecasters had known as for temperatures to plummet all through the day into the only digits — a 20 to 30 diploma drop from morning — no storm proved too daunting for some hearty Chicagoans, who proceeded with enterprise as typical on Thursday, as some have been noticed jogging alongside Michigan Avenue or taking strolls with their households.

There’s chilly, after which there’s Soldier Subject-in-late-December chilly. Bear weather, they call it.

For these unfamiliar with the phrase, many — together with iconic coach Mike Ditka — consider the wintry circumstances put Bears opponents at a drawback.

The purpose unfold — the Bills are favored by 9½ — figures to be greater than the temperature on the lakefront, which is forecast to be 8 degrees at kickoff (midday, CBS-2) with a windchill of minus-14.

Bear in mind 2021? It was 55 levels on Christmas that yr — however Chicago has skilled hotter temps on the vacation.

O’Hare Worldwide Airport, town’s official recording website, reported a excessive of 57 on Dec. 25, 2019, making it the second warmest Christmas within the space. But neither have been as balmy because the excessive of 64 on Dec. 25, 1982 — the warmest Christmas recorded here since 1871.

The next yr, nevertheless, Chicago skilled the low temperature of minus 17 levels — town’s coldest Christmas.

Whereas the report for chilly temperatures in Chicago came about Jan. 20, 1985, lots of the metropolis’s lowest recorded temperatures got here from arctic snaps in 1872 and 1899.

The Nineteen Eighties and Nineties noticed frigid temperatures among the many metropolis’s coldest recorded, nevertheless solely three days at or colder than 16 under — Jan. 6, 2014 and in two in January 2019 — came about after the yr 2000.

Read the full breakdown here.

Chicago’s 10 largest blizzards include deep drifts of uniquely Chicago tales. A mayor voted out for mishandling stranded automobiles. A populace demanding a subway to compensate for caught trains. Prisoners making a break from county jail. Runaway steers that escaped a crashed truck.

Read all about Chicago’s 10 latest snowfalls since 1886 here.

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