Storms' effects likely won't last past weekend
It will probably be sometime Sunday before travel and other suburban activities are back to normal.
And two days later, most evidence of the storm that caused all the problems may be gone.
A steady snowfall that started in midafternoon Thursday clogged the Friday rush hour and canceled hundreds of flights at O'Hare International Airport. Up to 10 inches fell on the suburbs before it ended Friday morning.
Meanwhile, forecasters are predicting that by Monday, temperatures will reach into the mid-40s, meaning much of the snow could be melted by midweek.
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However short-lived its effects prove to be, the storm wreaked havoc with travel around the suburbs on Friday.
Gregg Cunningham, a spokesman for the Chicago aviation department, said more than 600 flights were canceled overnight at O'Hare. Airlines were set to pre-emptively cancel another 500 Friday morning but changed plans when the storm eased up, leaving just 350 flights on the ground.
"With the snow ending in the early afternoon, the airfield conditions improved," Cunningham said. "Our delays are still averaging 45 minutes, and now, the airlines are trying to get back up to speed."
He said airlines were rebooking passengers on different flights to get them to their destinations.
"We aren't sure when things will be back to normal," he said.
He said 200 passengers were stranded at O'Hare overnight, causing the airport to implement its passenger assistance program. Cots were laid out and stranded passengers were given a package of amenities to help them feel more comfortable, Cunningham said.
Meteorologists for the National Weather Service said between 7 and 10 inches of snow fell throughout Lake, Cook and DuPage counties, with more accumulation farther west.
Metra officials reported no weather-related delays.
ComEd spokesman John Dewey said there were no significant outages throughout the system.
"The snow didn't cause an issue because there wasn't strong winds with it," Dewey said.
National Weather Service meteorologist Gino Izzi said the official winter snow total was 30 inches at O'Hare International Airport as of 8:45 p.m. Thursday, above the 22-inch seasonal average.