As we moved into the New Year, the warmer than normal conditions of the previous months continued. However, a cold blast of arctic air arrived during the middle of the month, Jan 11th – 14th, with below zero temperatures recorded in every Midwestern state. Despite this cold period, the mild weather early and late in the month resulted in monthly average temperatures slightly above normal.
January was drier than normal with most areas receiving 50% or less the normal amount of precipitation and, as would be expected, snowfall followed suit with below normal amounts observed across most areas. The largest snow deficit occurred across extreme northern Illinois (including Chicago Metro) and northwest Indiana. On January 22nd a large storm moving across the Gulf coast states brought snowfall to extreme southern areas of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio resulting in monthly snowfalls averaging slightly above normal in these areas. Although the major Ohio cities of Cincinnati to Columbus measured 1 to 3 inches, amount of 6 to 10 inches of snow fell in counties bordering West Virginia making it the heaviest snowfall (outside of Lake Affect snow) for the state so far this winter.
February turned milder as temperatures averaged above normal across the entire area with the warmest areas, northwest Illinois, east central Indiana and most of Ohio where temperatures averaged 2 to 4 degrees above the norm. February precipitation had a wide range across the Midwest. Most of Illinois continued drier than normal with 75% or less the normal amount, while most of Indiana and Ohio had more than normal with areas of southeast Indiana and southwest Ohio exceeded 150% of normal!
Chicago lived up to its nickname, “the windy city”, on February 19th. Winds gusts of 60+ mph were observed across northern Illinois. The peak wind gust at Chicago O’Hare Airport was 62 mph and at Chicago Midway 61 mph. For more information on the wind even see our article.
On February 24th an intense storm moved through the eastern half of the Midwest and brought blizzard conditions to portions of Indiana and a very sharp snowfall gradient across southern Chicagoland. Northwest Indiana received 12 to 15 inches of snow while only 34 miles away, downtown Chicago had a near miss with less than 2 inches!
