Only
in Chicago could something like that be taken literally, and not be the least
bit of a surprise.
FOR
IT’S TRUE. The spring equinox came on Friday. We’re literally out of the winter
season. Spring training baseball in Arizona is well underway. The sloppy,
slushy snowfall that can cause massive traffic headaches ought to be behind us.
Yet
on Monday, we got hit with anywhere from two to five inches of snow – depending
on where in metro Chicago one lives. The further north toward the
Illinois/Wisconsin border, the heavier the snowfall!
The
four-inch figure comes from what was measured at O’Hare International Airport,
where some 250 flights scheduled for Monday morning had to be cancelled and
delays ran as long as 90 minutes in length.
All
of the Streets and Sanitation Department’s trucks had plows attached and were
out working to try to keep the streets cleared. Illinois Department of
Transportation officials were doing the same on the interstate highways –
although that didn’t prevent an auto accident from occurring this morning that
involved the official motorcade of Gov. Bruce Rauner.
THE
CAR THAT the governor was riding in was not hit. But it seems that one of the
vehicles carrying his security team struck another car, with the sloppy road
conditions being blamed.
A
police officer was taken to an area hospital, although was treated and
released. No major injuries involved, which is fortunate.
Now
two months ago, none of this would have been the least bit interesting (well
maybe the gubernatorial motorcade in an accident would have gotten a brief
mention). But the rest of this would have been chalked up to “winter as usual”
in the great Midwestern U.S.
But
this is springtime. We’re supposed to be past this.
EVEN
THOUGH I realize that the National Weather Service records indicate that
Chicago has been hit with snowfall as late as May 11, and that the latest
snowfall of an inch or more of the not-so-fluffy stuff came on May 4 (back in
1907, for those who are interested).
But
it was still a depressing jolt to wake up Monday morning, flip on a television
set tuned to The Weather Channel and see that they felt the most intriguing
meteorological event in the United States was a live shot of the Michigan
Avenue bridge over the Chicago River so we could see the snow falling on the
city.
Made
worse by the fact that when I looked out the window, I saw heavy snowfall
burying my neighborhood to the point where I couldn’t see any street.
Fortunately
for me, the places I had to go to on Monday were for things happening in late
afternoon.
BY
THAT TIME, the snow had long stopped falling. In fact, by about 1 p.m., the
streets had sort of been cleared – although it was quite obvious that a layer
of grayish slop still remained on top of the pavement.
Keep
in mind that this came just days after the Chicago winter weather season
officially ended with temperatures routinely getting into the 50-degree range,
and one day when I was seriously overdressed in a sweatshirt because the
temperature got up to the low 70s.
Which
the weather forecasts indicate is likely to return within days. Supposedly by
Wednesday, we’re going to have sunshine and temperatures in the low 60s. Just
envision the mess from the melt we’ll face by then!
I
understand its worse further northwest (I have aunts in the greater Minneapolis
area got whacked this weekend with harsher snowfall). But it makes me wonder
what we could have done to offend Mother Nature so bad – or is it all her idea
of a sick joke?
-30-
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