Sure, it's been a bad winter. But it's nowhere near a record-breaker yet

It may seem like one of the worst winters in recent years, but even the snow that closed down schools and businesses on Wednesday isn't enough to break a record yet.

The snowfall at O'Hare International Airport is at 40.9 inches since Dec. 1, according to the National Weather Service. The highest snowfall was the winter of 1978 and 1979, when O'Hare racked up 80.6 inches.

"This year would rank right now at number 15 if we didn't get any more snow the rest of February," said Nathan Marsili, meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

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Wednesday's snow brought 4.5 inches to O'Hare. In Northern Illinois, some areas had more than a foot of snow. Antioch had 15 inches, and Mundelein got 10 inches.

Marsili said the next big storm could be on Monday night, going into early Tuesday morning. "It maybe initially a mix (of rain and snow) changing into snow," he said.

And this weekend may bring another cold front.

Mike Caplan, meteorologist for ABC 7, said an "arctic front" is expected Saturday.

"Monday night into Tuesday at least has the possibility of having some fairly significant accumulation, although it's too far out to peg any amount yet," Caplan said.

Weather forecasters are reluctant to make longer range predictions.

"Given this winter, I'd be afraid to predict past 7 days," Marsili said. "We've had everything from the severe weather to flooding. We've had ice storms. We pretty much have had every type of winter weather."

The only prediction Jim Angel, state climatologist for the Illinois State Water Survey, is making is for more strange weather. He said La Ni#241;a out on the Pacific Ocean may be partly to blame.

"It's abnormally cold waters along the surface of the equator, and that trickles down and affects our weather patterns in the Midwest," he said. "There's no indication that this kind of weather pattern is going to change any time soon."

The good news is that winter is almost over, so the erratic weather likely won't last for more than a few more weeks, Angel said.

One risk with heavy snowfall is flooding. That isn't a huge concern now, he said, but could be an issue on the Rock and Fox rivers if the area gets more inclement weather.