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Below average temperatures, chance of light snow in store for Chicago’s slow winter

While the Eastern states were getting a winter thrashing early this week, the Chicago area experienced just some light, sporadic dusting amid bitter cold temperatures. And experts say that’s likely to be the outlook for most of the winter.

Lake effect snow — precipitation that results from cold air masses moving over the warm waters of Lake Michigan — may make a small turnaround for Chicago’s currently slow-to-come winter, with a chance for snow on Friday, according to the National Weather Service. And we will see low temperatures in the mid- to upper teens with highs ranging from 23 to 26 degrees - well below the figures in the low 30s that are normal for this time of year.

However, National Weather Service Meteorologist Kevin Birk said the snow won’t last long enough to pile up significantly.

  Ice clings to everything in Arlington Heights on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com

“There will be some on and off chances for some light snow here through the next week,” Birk said. “Doesn't look like any big storms.”

Freezing drizzle with snow on Monday made untreated roads and other areas slippery across northeast Illinois, but it was the first substantial sign of a Chicago winter this year apart from a brief accumulation of one to four inches on Nov. 24, 2024. December brought some strong winds and sub-zero wind chills, but once again only a few inches of accumulated snow.

In fact, Chicago area winters have increasingly featured less precipitation in recent years, with some exceptions. 2020 saw no major accumulating snow or ice, but the first month of Winter 2021 experienced the largest snowstorm Chicago had seen in five years, with six to 12 inches of snow. Above normal snow continued throughout that season in 2021 and was accompanied by multiple events of strong and damaging windstorms.

The excessive cold and winter precipitation events persisted into 2022, which saw winter storms throughout the month of February that brought heavy snowfall, although this was a year for a record late start to accumulating snow in the City. January and February were the most active winter months of 2022. By 2023, major winter events died down with a few heavy snowfalls and one ice storm in the far northern portion of Illinois.

The below-average temperatures of this week will probably be the rule throughout the rest of the winter, but the outlook for snowfall isn’t very clear, according to Birk. The NWS’s Climate Prediction Center has found no particular signs for either less or more precipitation than usual, suggesting about equal chances for either this winter, he said.

“As we head into February, and maybe even into the early part of the spring season, March, there's not really a huge signal for temperatures. They've got us at equal chances,” Birk said.

  A man walks through a parking lot at Woodfield Mall as ice clings to tree branches in Schaumburg on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
  A woman pushes a cart on icy sidewalks in downtown Arlington Heights on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
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