Snow has suburbanites yearning for spring - or better climate
Ameet Patil is so sick of recent weather - including the snow that blanketed the area Saturday - that he's hoping this will be the last winter he spends here.
The 30-year-old Des Plaines man said pot holes have taken a toll on his car's suspension and he's ready to shed his scarf and gloves.
"I'm really ready to move out of Chicago for good because of this winter," said Patil, a software engineer from India who has been in the U.S. for nearly a decade.
"I want to go someplace warmer, Atlanta or Austin. We have friends there; they're wearing T-shirts and we're in our scarfs," Patil said.
Close to 4 inches of new snow fell across Northern Illinois Saturday, the first real snow for February and less than some forecasts. The National Weather Service reported 3.2 inches of snow had fallen by noon Saturday at O'Hare and in Oak Brook. Closer to Lake Michigan, 4.8 inches had fallen in Chicago. So far this season, the weather service reports 44.8 inches; the normal is 28.1.
Police departments across the area reported few accidents, thankful that the snow fell on a weekend and not during weekday commuting hours.
Cabdriver Lester Sulkowski said traveling was slow, but luckily his drive to O'Hare International Airport early Saturday was uneventful.
"I had a customer at 4 o'clock this morning. The roads were very, very bad," said the Arlington Heights man. "There was no traffic at that time, but I had to drive 20 miles an hour."
He said the trip took about 45 minutes.
Brothers Michael and Shawn Stewart, both 17, got an early start clearing the snow from their driveway and along the sidewalk along Arlington Heights Road in Arlington Heights. They relied on snowblowers and got help from their 7-year-old brother Dakota, who used a kid-sized shovel.
While they didn't find the return of this chore too depressing, Michael said they're getting impatient for warmer weather so they can go to the skate park again.
The snow didn't keep Maryann Breen, a lifelong resident of the Northwest suburbs, from her routine.
After shoveling her driveway earlier in the morning, the Arlington Heights woman tramped through the snow in her boots and hat as she headed for another workout at a downtown fitness center.
"This doesn't bother me. It's February; there's no baseball, no football," she said, running shoes in hand. "Everything looks so much prettier in the snow."
The Chicago Cubs fan had one caveat: "as long as it's all gone by opening day."
• Eric Peterson contributed to this report
<div style="float:right;margin:0 0 6px 0;"> <div class="moreHolder"> <div style="margin:6px;text-wrap:auto;"> <div class="moreSubHead"> Photos </div> <ul class="moreGallery"> <li><a href="/story/?id=273968" class="mediaItem">February snowfall </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>