Chicago Storm

Today was a fluke, but it goes to show why the new SPC format is flawed trash.

The science is currently not good enough and never will be good enough to set a min/max on hail size, wind speed and tor strength in outlooks and MD's.

^that's violent, to say the least.

https://x.com/Ham_BklynWx/status/2030018538727956893?s=20

9 hours ago, King James said:

June - September has become the only tolerable stretch here in Chicago

Rest of the time just cold and windy with a few nice days here and there

poor take.

30 minutes ago, McHenrySnow said:

"quite a few" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. you did get a lot of LES a few winters ago in that one storm that missed the NW burbs and you got lucky again this year in a similar setup, and we all got a good snow in November last year, but I honestly don't recall a single other "big dog." of course, i don't know what your criteria for that wording is, but imo, it has to be double digits. I do recall 16-17 being a miserable, practically non-existent winter after the first two weeks of December. I also remember getting screwed in 2015 by the warm lake in the November storm where O'hare still managed 11" - of course, that is over a decade ago at this point (hard to fathom tbh). 

Edit: Just remembered February 2018 was rocking for a week, while I was in Mexico. smdh. 

you forgot this one...

2 minutes ago, DocATL said:

Looks like a good opportunity for Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Michigan to get some late season snow. Prospects for ORD hitting its average is dicey.

alek is in your head too much.

12 hours ago, DocATL said:

This is one of the more remarkable aspects of this winter. To go potentially 7+ weeks with one very light duster from early February to the later half of March.

kinda unremarkable, if you dig into chicago weather history.

it happens more than you think, that is a lack of snow during winter months at times. i'm not just talking recently over the past few years either.

12 minutes ago, Powerball said:

 

Has there been a Spring where that doesn't happen?

Even 2012 has a hard freeze in April... 

essentially.

March 2012 (53.5) was warmer than April 2012 (50.7) in Chicago.

Very bad
Warm and wet turning into nw flow and cad

big-time model guidance fail for today's event, and even in event performance was horrendous.

where upwards of 4-8" of snow occurred, the hrrr had only a dusting and the euro had only 1-3", for example.

statistical information on winter in chicago, since the historic winter of 2013/14...

like i've said, this is the snowiest and coldest season we've seen in years.

More than 1.1 inches of snow in February is not unrealistic.

I thought we were talking about the winter not February.

December, yea.  You know CAD doesn’t count.  You have to be trolling.

lol

So uhh…winter grades? Or we still waiting?

2 minutes ago, DocATL said:

That’s pretty depressing considering February’s minimal participation in winter this year.

november and february were essentially swapped.

On 2/24/2026 at 7:30 AM, Cary67 said:

If it wasn't for LES ORD could join RFD in the sub 30 sweepstakes club. Clippers have dusted Chicago a bit more than the rest of N. IL also. Every mile further E/NE under the trough helps. Great winter for Toronto 

20 hours ago, Chicago Storm said:

that's like saying if marquette didn't have les snow, they'd have as much snow seasonal snow as la crosse.

17 hours ago, Cary67 said:

Yeah but it seems Chicago has benefitted more from LES events than normal this winter for being on the wrong side of the lake. I don't have statistics for it though.  

15 hours ago, Chicago Storm said:

It would be hard to pull any long term statistics regarding that.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll check to see how much of the seasonal snow thus far this season was pure LES.

Roughly just over 4" of the current seasonal snowfall total of 32.3" was pure LES.

8 hours ago, A-L-E-K said:

punctuated by a few noteworthy events but it's been a real slow go as far as interesting wx goes around here, compounded by the fact that the planet is doing wild events on a reg now, i'm sure our time will come soon enough but this season has been a drag

we've had more winter this season than we have in many years.

stop your bitching lol.

7 hours ago, A-L-E-K said:

last spring was pretty ace iirc, maybe boring but nice

we had some severe wx events in the area.

saw some bullshit on the twitter about extremely late season sswe, we're gonna get f'd in april, i can feel it

Yeah but it seems Chicago has benefitted more from LES events than normal this winter for being on the wrong side of the lake. I don't have statistics for it though.  

On 2/23/2026 at 4:27 PM, DocATL said:

What an epic amazing storm. We may not see this again until next year.

gonna be a helluva lot longer than that.

On 2/23/2026 at 5:48 PM, cmillzz said:

I feel like that one underperformed slightly regarding snow amounts, even for the LOT CWA. IIRC the wind was ripping apart the dendrites and lowering ratios, so was falling like pixie dust. But then again, wouldn’t have been the same without the big wind, so did meet overall expectations. 

compared to some of the snow maps, sure. but most guidance hit well.

i remember when the euro had that thing locked in from a week+ out, and only lost briefly it for a run or two several days out.

6 hours ago, DocATL said:

We’ve got to scrounge up 6 inches to hit our average for winter snowfall. Not sure 1.1 inches per month will cut it. On the bright side our drought may finally have a dent in it.

we had 1.1" per month in nov and dec?