Chicago Storm

This was from just a short time ago near home…

I can see the lights even here at ORD currently.

Highest report I've been able to come across is 17" in Winthrop Harbor.

ORD got on the board with the first T and first measurable snow of the new season on Saturday night/Sunday morning, with the hybrid storm system that moved through. A whopping 0.1" of snow occurred (Area reports suggest that was probably a few tenths too low).

ORD picked up 1.6" of snowfall last night/this morning, with the lake effect snow event.

Winter 2025/26 Snowfall Totals
1.7" - ORD
1.2" - RFD

1 hour ago, RCNYILWX said:

Based on how much discussion there was on social media of the NWS snowfall maps with the huge ranges, was that a topic on here and did anyone attempt to address what those ranges represent? I'd be happy to, just don't want to rehash if it's already been covered.

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You know who should be fired for that AFD on Sunday morning.

4 hours ago, Powerball said:

While it was an impressive setup on paper, it's not surprising that it busted for Chicago at least.

Aside from the convective nature of LES, it is much harder to get stationary banding on the west side of the lake.

The thing is, there was stationary banding, two in fact. The issue was more that the core of the metro was just split by both bands, just due to unfavorable positioning. The main-full lake plume ended up too far west (Racine-Kenosha-Waukegan) and the southern lake/meso-low band was too far south (Lake Co, IN to Iroquois Co).

It is looking like downtown, ORD and MDW will miss out on the best of this one.

There are two areas of interest for maximum accumulation totals. Location #1 will be from the Gary-Valpo area down to the Kankakee area, where snowfall is maximized on the backside of the meso-low. Location #2 will be from around Kenosha down to around Lake Forest, where the main single band looks to have found it's spot to park for several hours.

Just now, Chicago916 said:

Some really high DBZ coming ashore now. Likely graupel and more thunder to come

Someone I know has reported graupel.

2 minutes ago, homedis said:

THUNDERSNOW!!!

Right over downtown on the feed.

The massive meso-low currently at the southern tip of the lake is just cranking.

Can't recall seeing something to that magnitude before around here.

One of many… But this particular meso-low earlier this afternoon was quite significant.

31 minutes ago, ChiTownSnow said:

Did NWS do away with 'lake effect snow warnings'. ?

The NWS Central Region did a few years ago.

The move was made to make simplify things and lower the number of headlines types overall. But at the same time, it's kind of of dumb, because this is clearly not a "winter storm". Gain simplicity, lose accuracy.

Taking the under  
 

If it works out perfectly, you’re getting Buffalo-ed.

As you well know, odds say it won’t. But, if it does…

What is the all time November snowfall record for Chicago? 

For reference, some historic data for Chicago:

The problem re: Chicago snowfall records…

The core of activity will likely be east of ORD. So, in the end, it may be tough to see any sort of record falls, unless best activity is surprisingly further west.

Orientation may even keep MDW out of the absolute best as well, but we’ll see. Better shot there than ORD. Of course, nothing there would be official, but it would be documented at least.

6 hours ago, OrdIowPitMsp said:

Miss south, suppression to start the season.

hopefully that's sarcasm.

If you're pulling for a scenario for the weekend, you want it to be the Euro (and company) solution... ULL, inverted trough and lake meso-low combo.

The lake parameters some guidance is showing is top tier.

track would be a banger month or two later

but, would it be?

Autumn Blaze Maple in the backyard is poppin’…

Reports of graupel across the metro area this afternoon.

i don’t know why they even issue outlooks. they just look at a classic ENSO map and plot it.

55 minutes ago, andyhb said:

Have a pretty optimistic view that this will be the catalyst for a reanalysis of tornadoes from recent years for revisions to their ratings.

I'm in an "I'll believe it when I see it" mindset in regards to that.

Hopefully it occurs at some point, though... As we all know there is a good handful of tors that have most definitely been EF-5 through the years.

20 minutes ago, Stevo6899 said:

Different strokes I suppose. I enjoy summer as much as snow in the winter. I am not a hunter. Not sure how anyone finds sitting on your ass watchin your life pass you by hoping you can shoot an animal appealing. I prob would enjoy being away from people and enjoying the nature aspect of hunting. But I'd imagine most would rather fast forward through the rest of october/november.

i think you underestimate how many normies enjoy fall weather.

you're looking at it from the perspective of jonesing for interesting weather, where-as regulars do not care about that.

Some locations were able to sneak in a couple of early October 90°'s this past weekend.

MDW was one of those locations, with a high of 90° on Friday.

...2025 90°+ Day Tally...
31 - MDW
29 - ARR
28 - DPA
28 - PWK
27 - ORD
22 - LOT
20 - RFD
19 - UGN

The EF-5-less streak is over…

Drought conditions showing up on satellite. 

don’t fall for that social media post going around.

that’s just the crops fading and being harvested. literally looks like that every year around this time.