Chicago is headed for another winter of heavy snowfall, Accuweather's long-range forecasting team announced today. If the prediction holds true, Chicago will face its fifth winter in a row with above-average snowfalls and below-average temperatures. It's not just a little extra snow Chicago's been experiencing in the past four years but an average of 20.6 extra inches.
From the winter of 2006-07 when annual snowfall was 35.6 inches, Chicago's total skyrocketed to 60.3 inches and has been hovering in the 50 to 60 inches range ever since.
Chicagoans may want to dig in and enjoy their heavy snowfalls because climate studies suggest that despite the increase in snow these past few years, Chicago's big snowfalls may be headed toward extinction.
Chicago's historical annual snowfall highs
Between 1884-85 and 2004-05, Chicago's annual snowfall exceeded 50 inches 23 times. Never before did the snowfall record surpass 50 inches for more than three years in a row, so a fifth year would be a record.
But when it comes to the highest annual snowfall, the 60.3 inches in 2007-08 don't hold up to the record-setting 89.7 inches in 1978-79 or the 82.3 inches of 1977-78.
Chicago's annual snowfall lows
The lowest annual snowfall recorded in Chicago was 9.8 inches in 1920-21. Chicago's seen less than 20 inches of snow in a winter only eight times, most recently in 1948-49. Chicago's lowest annual snowfall in the past 50 years is 1994-95's 24.1 inches.
Highest snowfalls from individual storms
A look at Chicago's ten biggest storms shows the one producing the highest snowfall amount occurred in January, 1967 and dumped 23.0 inches on the city. 1999's storm that produced 21.6 inches of snow came in second.
Climate Change or Normal Variation
The city of Chicago is a believer in the risk global warming poses to it, and it isn't waiting until the full effects are felt to take action. By 2070, Chicago could experience a 35 percent increase in winter and spring precipitation, its projections show.
The city's climate action plan says Chicago's average temperature has already increased 2.6 degrees since 1980. The plan warns that failure to take action to reduce emissions will result in higher rainfall and snowfall amounts.
So the city has been implementing strategies like creating green roofs and planting shade trees to offset expects climate changes. But it's not merely trying to ward off climate change; it's also adapting by looking at what climatologists say the climate will be like 50 years from now and choosing trees species that will thrive in the new, warmer Chicago.
Is the increase in snowfall the past few years an indication climate change is already arriving? The National Resources Defense Council says yes. But it says, "more winter precipitation is falling as rain than as snow… The frequency of intense storm events with very heavy downpours- more than 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) in a 24-hour period- is likely to increase as much as 50 percent between 2010 and 2039…"
Chicagoans might want to enjoy that snow while they still have it!
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