Snow heavy but not record-setting

Had enough? Get used to it.

"We have a little joke: 'We live here too,'" said Bob McMahon, senior forecaster with the National Weather Service office in Sullivan, Wis., between Milwaukee and Madison. "It gets wearying."

McMahon was talking about snow, of course, a familiar topic this month. Yes, the storms - or "events" as public works crews like to call them - have been frequent and, at times, vexing.

But unless you live in the northern tier of Illinois counties or southern Wisconsin, they haven't been record-setting.

"I wouldn't say this is a snowier winter," said Amy Seeley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville. "There have been past years where we had a bunch of snow in December but after that, we've had hardly any."

Before the snow began falling Tuesday morning, the official tally at O'Hare International Airport as of Dec. 1 was 17.5 inches. That's above the average of 8.7 inches but well below the record of 33.3 inches in 1951.

Even with the expected addition of as much as 7 inches from a storm on Tuesday and Wednesday, the snow record seems safe.

Up north is another story, where unofficial snow totals are dwarfing O'Hare reports. Before Tuesday, Hawthorn Woods, for example, measured nearly 29 inches. Antioch reported 26 inches. Including the 4 inches that fell as of early afternoon Tuesday, Mundelein was at 29.5 inches.

Mundelein crews have been out salting or plowing 13 times so far this season compared to seven times last year at this time. There may be a break for Christmas Day but at this point, snow and rain are sandwiched on either side of the holiday.

"The guys would like to spend one day off this month with their families," said Mundelein Public Works Director Ken Miller, hoping for a break.

More than the snowfall totals, though, it's the timing of this month's storms that has been tough to cope with.

Hundreds of flights out of O'Hare were canceled in the last two days, stranding scores of travelers trying to get to Christmas destinations.

The snow also likely interrupted many last-day shopping trips, as dozens of crashes and spin-outs were reported Wednesday. Potholes caused by melting snow earlier in the day caused many flat tires, with crews dispatched for emergency patching for the worst spots. By evening, as the temperatures dropped again, the new problem was black ice and even slicker conditions.

But even within the greater Chicago region, northern areas, like last year, seem to have become the preferred route for a continuing succession of weather systems. And it makes a difference.

Consider: For the 2007-08 season, just over 60 inches of snow fell at O'Hare. Rockford reported just under 73 inches. Unofficially, Woodstock in McHenry County reported about 80 inches.

This year, Madison, Wis., was expected by Wednesday to break its December record of 35 inches of snow set in 2000.

"It's just the way the storm track has set up this year," McMahon said. "The northern suburbs of Chicago have seem much more snow than the south."

The clash of cold and warm air along the jet stream, a river of upper level air, produces waves of energy. Storms follow the jet stream. Smaller bursts of energy have preceded the storms, dropping just enough snow to send out the road crews.

"These impulses have been coming through every other day or every third day," McMahon said.

It doesn't appear the pattern will break within the next 10 days or so. But there are indications of a possible shift by mid to late January, he said.

"It may change the pattern enough that it may take us out of the storm track a bit," McMahon said.

Predicted warmer temperatures with rain this weekend have raised another issue.

"We're really concerned about the weather Friday, Saturday and Sunday and the flood potential," said C. Kent McKenzie, emergency management coordinator for Lake County.

Snow aside, there is one record that is about to fall. An unusually wet December has pushed 2008 into second place for the wettest. Through Monday, 48.56 inches of precipitation had been recorded just shy of the high of 49.35 inches in 1983.

• Staff Writer Nadia Malik contributed to this report.