Dear Tom,
Most areas around Chicago get somewhat the same amount of rain or snow, but a small area where I live in New Lenox always seems to fall short. My hunch needs to be backed up by some long-term statistics. Can you help?
Frank, New Lenox, Ill.
Dear Frank,
With the exception of certain well-known weather phenomena (such as lake-effect snow) that target “favored” areas, we have no climatic evidence to suggest any location in the Chicago area receives less (or more) precipitation than places around it.
Given sufficient time, decades perhaps, it all “evens out.”
Noticeable precipitation differences over short distances are usually elevation-related, but that is not a factor in the Chicago area. For example, annual precipitation in downtown Asheville, N.C., (2,100 feet) is 39″, but four miles away in the Smokies (4,500 feet), it’s 53″.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or asktomwhy@wgntv.com (Mail volume precludes personal response.)
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
