Commuters will face a tough slog to work Wednesday morning as the Chicago area digs out of more than half a foot of snow buffeted by blustery winds and plummeting temperatures.
The city’s 404 snow-removal trucks were expected to remain on duty throughout the night Tuesday, trying to clear the main roads before tackling neighborhood streets. Even as the snowfall was beginning to taper off, drifts created by gusting winds made their work an uphill battle, said Matt Smith, a spokesman for Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation.
“We have to get the main streets in the best condition possible before we get to the side streets,” Smith said. “We have to keep plowing and salting again and again. We keep using the plows, we use salt, and we use perseverance.”
Some trucks had to hit the same streets dozens of times Tuesday to make any headway, Smith said. The reason? They were contending with winds of up to 30 mph and the heaviest snowfall on a Feb. 13 since 1896, meteorologists said.
Chicago’s airports faced daunting holdups Tuesday, with more than 1,000 flights canceled. Travelers who had planned on leaving town were expected to be waiting for Wednesday flights.
The cancellations won’t necessarily mean more delays, officials said. Southwest Airlines flights were landing late Tuesday, and no flights had been canceled for Wednesday, officials at Midway said.
An American Airlines spokeswoman said about 20 percent of its O’Hare flights scheduled to leave before noon Wednesday had been grounded, and United Airlines officials said that half of its flights slated to leave before 2 p.m. Wednesday were canceled.
Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Claffey said motorists should avoid driving early Wednesday as crews work to clear 339 routes in the state’s six northeastern counties.
“We’re very concerned,” Claffey said. “We’re expecting temperatures in the teens and single digits and icy conditions.”
National Weather Service meteorologist Tim Halbach said another 1 to 3 inches of snow could fall on Wednesday, accompanied by temperatures in the teens and windchills hovering around zero.
“The lake-effect snow will probably start turning more toward northwest Indiana,” Halbach said. “The wind is still going to be pretty gusty, so the snow that’s falling is still going to be blowing around quite a bit. And the temperatures are going to continue to drop.”
Tuesday’s conditions nearly met the official definition for a blizzard, Halbach added, with sustained winds of 35-plus mph and visibility less than a quarter-mile.
That weather tripped up Metra travel Tuesday evening, delaying trains because of fouled switches, officials said. CTA trains, however, were running on schedule, officials said.
And Downstate, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign canceled classes for the first time since 1979, said university spokeswoman Robin Kaler.
“It’s a mess, a big mess,” Kaler said. The weather “was forcing students to walk in the middle of the street. That is pretty dangerous.”
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Snow slowdown
Developments as of Tuesday night:
– Northbound Lake Shore Drive was shut down at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday from 57th to 47th Streets. At about 8:45 p.m., the shutdown was extended all the way to the I-55 exchange.
– At 8 p.m., the city had 377 plows on Chicago’s main routes. It planned to shift trucks to side streets once falling snow subsided.
– A CTA spokeswoman said trains were operating normally as of late Tuesday afternoon, but the agency still was askingcommuters to “allow for extra time for their trips” due to the continuing snowfall.
– Chicago State University closed Tuesday at 4 p.m. due to severe weatherconditions and will not reopen until 7 a.m.Thursday, officials of the South Side school announced.
– More than 900 flights were canceled at O’Hare, and about 425 flights were canceled at Midway. Department of Aviation spokeswoman Wendy Abrams said travelers should expect delays and possible cancellations into Wednesday.
– Metra reported delays of up to an hour across its system Tuesday evening, mostly due to weather-related switch problems.
— Tribune
