March going out like a lamb? Well, snow IS white and fluffy ...

When Maria Martin returned home to Arlington Heights after a trip to Florida, she expected to see tulips and crocuses.

"Two days ago, I was on a beach enjoying 80-degree weather," she said. On Sunday morning, Martin was shoveling her sidewalk.

She said her husband was still in Florida, playing golf. And the snowblower had been stored in a shed.

Down the street, Bonnie Bennett was clearing off the car in her condominium parking lot. A tree had fallen near the front door of her unit. "This is Chicago," she said. "We could have lived anywhere else."

Overnight, winter made it clear it would not "go gentle into that good night," in the words of Dylan Thomas. Stephen Rodriguez, meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the snowfall varied in the Chicago area, with the highest amounts of snowfall across the far eastern portions of McHenry County and Lake County. In Lake, he said, there were reports of 6 to 8 inches. In the city of Chicago, by comparison, only 1 to 3 inches fell. The difference, he said, was due to colder temperatures in the north. Normally, Chicago would have received about a quarter of an inch. On Sunday, O'Hare reported half an inch. He said this year's snowfall is above average, but not close to a record.

As expected, there were minor accidents and downed trees. Elk Grove police said there was a minor accident on northbound Route 53 near Higgins. Barrington Hills reported several trees down. In Bartlett, a snowplow ran down a mailbox.

Public works crews responded by sending out employees with shovels to clear sidewalks and trucks to pour salt. In Des Plaines, the call for salt crews went out at around 3:30 a.m. The trucks were on the street at 4:30 a.m., 15 pieces of equipment strong. One city employee said the availability of salt was a major problem. Not only was it harder to get your hands on, but it was three times the cost, he said. Because last winter was so brutal, salt inventories were depleted. The employee said was salt was being used more sparingly and mixed with sand and calcium chloride. Adding the latter to normal rock salt, he said, "is like putting it on steroids." It makes the salt effective at a much lower temperature.

Airlines at O'Hare International Airport were reporting some delays averaging 30 minutes and more than 75 canceled flights, as of 11 a.m. Sunday. At Midway Airport, there were some delays averaging one hour or more and a few canceled flights. The Chicago Department of Aviation is advising passengers to arrive at the airports two hours in advance of their flights.