Dear Tom,
What are the longest and shortest intervals between Chicago’s first snowflakes in autumn and the last ones in spring?
–Matt Mills
Dear Matt,
The period you describe is sometimes referred to as the snowing season and in Chicago typically extends for 174 days from Oct. 30 to April 21. The city’s shortest snowing season on record spanned only 109 days from Nov. 21, 1945, to March 9, 1946.
Chicago’s longest snowing season, recorded in the winter of 1909-10, covered 235 days from Oct. 11 to June 2, a date that marks the city’s latest-in the-season snowfall.
The last snowflakes recorded in Chicago this season fell April 6, and if no more snow falls the rest of this spring, the 2008-09 snow season will enter the books at a lower-than-average 163 days from Oct. 26 to April 6.
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