Warm-up coming after snow causes hellish commute
Sun-Times Media January 20, 2012 7:28PM
Fred Hoehn of Buffalo Grove is shown jogging during Friday's snowstorm in Buffalo Grove. Hoehn had just dropped off some mail at the post office and said it wasn't that cold out. | Buzz Orr~Sun-Times Media
Updated: February 22, 2012 12:14PM
Mother Nature has finally remembered it’s winter in Chicago, but the city will likely get a snow break for a few days following Friday’s traffic-snarling storm that even delayed a game played on ice.
It’s expected to be chilly for much of the weekend, with only a slight chance of snow, according to the National Weather Service. Highs are expected to be near 25 Saturday, warming to 39 Sunday. And it’s likely to be a soggy, wet start to the week, forecasters say.
A fine, powdery snow blanketed much of the city Friday, resulting in 5.4 inches of snow at O’Hare and 6.2 inches at Midway by 9 p.m. Other totals included seven inches in Orland Hills and 6.8 inches in Downers Grove. With 9.1 inches, Joliet got hit the worst Friday.
The snow came at precisely the wrong time for evening commuters. Drivers faced commutes as long as four hours on the Edens Expressway and airlines cancelled 700 flights at O’Hare and 100 at Midway.
It caused further headaches for at least 159 motorists who sought help from Illinois Tollway workers with changing tires, charging car batteries or because they ran out of gas or got stranded.
The Chicago Blackhawks’ match started about half an hour later, after the snow delayed the Florida Panthers’ team bus on its way from its downtown hotel to the United Center.
The Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago closed at 1 p.m. Friday, but the Glenview museum is scheduled to resume regular hours on Saturday.
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