It's snowing again in Chicago. Not a lot. But definitely flurries.
The Tribune predicts our snow cover may melt within two weeks. They also report that 49 states have snow on the ground today; only Florida seems to have missed it. (Hawai'i, don't forget, has a 4,200 m volcano that gets snow occasionally.) And they report that Oklahoma will experience a 55°C swing in temperatures over the next few days, from yesterday morning's -34°C to next week's expected 22°C.
But it's snowing again. Crap.
The good news: today we've probably had the coldest day we'll have all year.
The bad news: it's just now gotten above -10°C, after hitting -23°C this morning.
I've been really Zen about winter, but I'm losing patience.
At least I don't have the problems our local squirrel population has. Poor dudes.
Checking up on my car this morning I found this:
Yeah, no way I'm getting it out without a backhoe or a serious thaw. This shot doesn't make it obvious that the city pushed my car into contact with the SUV to its front. And given the massive glacier at its back, I don't think my little VW can push its way back, either.
Three cheers—albeit half-hearted ones—for the CTA.
The University of Illinois has a stash of aerial photographs of Illinois from 1938 and 1939, including one that shows the house I grew up in under construction. The photo at left is 1938; at right is 2001:
Here's a larger crop of the 1938 photo overlaid with a 2010 image:
Natives of the town will probably recognize it instantly.
Here's an extreme close-up with the foundation of my house highlighted:
I also looked at photos of Chicago from the same batch, and after posting this, I will look for more recent photos. The construction of the city's expressways started in the 1940s; I'm curious to see "during" photos.
The Tribune reported this morning that the 66 mm of snow we got yesterday set a record, by pushing this winter's total snowfall above 125 cm for the 4th winter in a row. We've never had four consecutive 125 cm winters before. Mazel tov, Chicago.
In the same blog the Tribune also explained why wind chills seem warmer than 10 years ago: the formula changed in 2001. So a wind chill of -40° in 2000 might only be -20° now. Doesn't that make you feel better?
Looks like my exertions yesterday were nearly pointless:
For a lagniappe, they gave the snow behind my car an extra push, making me wonder how I will be able to get out of the spot at all:
At least there's Zipcar if I need it.
I dug my car out of a meter-high snowbank yesterday. Flash forward to this morning:
Fortunately, the overnight snowfall (about 5 cm so far) is light and fluffy, which I can remove in just a few minutes. The 40 minutes I spent yesterday involved moving hunks of ice and frozen, gray slush. And, as a friend pointed out, it is February.
I mentioned yesterday that having my car snowed in didn't bother me much. I do have to use it eventually, however. Today the temperature got above freezing, the warmest we expect it to be for the next week, at least. So, after 40 minutes with a shovel and a spade, I went from this:
To this
I will now shower. And nap.
The storm this week forced 20,000 flight cancellations costing $120-150 million:
American Airlines, the country’s third-largest carrier, took the biggest hit after high winds and ice closed its Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport hub Tuesday.
American, along with American Eagle and its other commuter operations, racked up more than 5,300 cancellations for the week, according to FlightAware, which tracks airline performance.
Assuming that 10 percent to 30 percent of stranded customers choose to not reschedule, the cancellations likely reduced first-quarter net income of parent company AMR Corp. by $41.5 million to $51.3 million, or 12.5 cents to 15 cents a share, said Vaughn Cordle, chief analyst at AirlineForecasts.
None of the airlines the article discussed commented on the figures.
Or, why I will never work somewhere where I need to commute by car:
A jack-knifed semi blocked all lanes of the northbound Edens Expressway north of the Willow exit for more than an hour this morning.
The accident at one point backed up traffic to Fullerton on the Kennedy Expressway.
(Photo: WGN-TV)
I might need to go downtown today, which will require one of the 7 bus routes or 3 El lines that pass within a kilometer of my house. And this does not bother me at all:
