Suburbs see snow, high winds, cold on Saturday
The Chicago area got its first taste of winter Saturday, with high winds, low temperatures and, yes, even a little snow.
The suburbs saw wind gusts of up to 50 mph, ABC 7 reported, and that caused flight delays at O'Hare and Midway airports, as well as downed trees and power outages.
About 90,000 ComEd customers lost power, but not for very long in the majority of cases, spokesman Paul Elsberg said.
Most outages were south of Chicago; nearly 23,000 customers were still without power late Saturday night, Elsberg said, adding he didn't yet have a time frame for when power would be restored.
The weather also affected a fundraising cook-off in suburbs. Cooks battled high winds, sleet and snow during the Chili Appreciation Society International event at Kuipers Family Farm in Maple Park. The organization raises funds for charities throughout the year by competing in sanctioned CASI chili cook-offs.
Mark Saiz, an organizer with CASI, said four cooks' shelters blew over, as did two pots of chili.
Saturday's flurries marked the first official snow of the season, but some snow did fall eight days ago, but it wasn't at O'Hare, where the official readings are recorded, ABC 7 said.
AccuWeather calls for sun and a high back up to 50 Sunday and 59 on Monday.
• Daily Herald staff writer Susan Sarkauskas contributed to this report.