And Winter Comes

In Illinois, winter always comes. It seems like it is coming, here, or preparing to leave so we can prepare for a few months for the next season’s blast. Long story short, in two seasons or four, there is always winter. Cold air, cold rain, and depending on your geographical location, snow.

At first glance, a fresh snowfall is beautiful. Soft. White. Billowy, even. Snow unifies the landscape with mostly white.

However, soon after, the melting snow, salt and chemical sprays, and traffic change the snow to black slush and yuck. That’s only the color issue. Of course, there is the slip and slide, the falls and auto crashes, and heavy snows bring the threat of roof collapses. I remember shoveling off my garage roof to keep it from falling in. I propped it up with large poles until the snow load was removed. That was the winter of 1978-79, 93 inches in Chicagoland that season.

When I lived in Syracuse, New York, I noted few if any flat roofs. Syracuse gets 128 inches of snow per season. That’s an average. In a bad year that total can be much higher. And heavier.

So, the weekend’s few inches of snow (11/9/25) was bearable. Pretty for a few minutes, but tolerable after that.

This is just the beginning. We will see much more snow and ice before spring arrives. You can count on that. How much is open to speculation. Forecasters are suggesting we may receive much more snow this season in the upper Midwest. That includes Chicago. If polar vortexes attack us several times in the season, we are likely to get more snow than usual. Polar vortexes, however, are not that usual for Chicagoland. The forecasts are not yet solid for the season. Don’t worry until the reality happens. Always a good suggestion in the Midwest.

November 14, 2025

 

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