Duration of Winter? (Chicago: to live in, moving to, averages)

[vw1116]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a little apprehensive to post about the winter on here because I know that there are tons of threads about the infamous Chicago weather so please bear with me. My fiance and I may be moving to Chicago soon for a job offer. My question is specific to the length of winter.

I've lived in Colorado my whole life, and while we have arguably one of the more bearable real winters, they are so long. The window for snow is often the beginning of October to sometime in April. Yes, we do have some lovely 60 degree days interspersed (usually followed by single digits the next day), but I feel like a colder, shorter, more predictable winter followed by a real Spring might be a nice change of pace. Can anyone weigh in on the typical duration of winter in Chicago? Can anyone from Colorado offer a comparison?

[chiMT]

Hi,

This thread might interest you:
//www.city-data.com/forum/chica...s-chicago.html

A lot of good information and discussion there.

[Opin_Yunated]

Useful information on Chicago climate is found here. The "cold season" for Chicago is November 29 to March 3. The dates with a reasonable probability of snow falling (not necesarily sticking) are November 12 to April 1. That is a good guideline.

[vw1116]

Thank you both for your responses! Looked at both links, very helpful. The past couple years here in Denver we've gotten our first snow in early October and the last snow the middle of May, neither of which is unusual. A lot of people love the weather here anyway because there's a lot of moderate days mixed in towards the beginning and the end (and a long winter sports season), but personally I'd rather get winter over with! If the winter weather in Chicago is mainly contained in a few month block, that sounds pretty good to me, even if it's colder...

[Steve-o]

I counted winter as late November until Mid-March... after that it generally begins to warm up quite quickly, with temps in the 50s/60s/70s. I think two years ago in mid-March we even had a string up mid-80 degree temps. Thats not normal, but just gives you an idea. Snow that falls in March will generally melt quickly, unlike Dec/Jan/Feb where it can stick around for weeks. We do get some warm ups in winter, too, but probably not as frequently as Colorado. The sun will shine less in winter than Colorado as well, some people are affected by that. Youll see 40-50% sunshine in winter, and 70% or so in summer.

[chiMT]

Originally Posted by vw1116

Thank you both for your responses! Looked at both links, very helpful. The past couple years here in Denver we've gotten our first snow in early October and the last snow the middle of May, neither of which is unusual. A lot of people love the weather here anyway because there's a lot of moderate days mixed in towards the beginning and the end (and a long winter sports season), but personally I'd rather get winter over with! If the winter weather in Chicago is mainly contained in a few month block, that sounds pretty good to me, even if it's colder...

Yeah, it typically doesn't snow here until november or december. March is when the snow mostly ends, although in April it happens and May is possible. Like someone else said, those snows dont stick on the ground for very long. Every year for me, halloween has been about the first night that I thought it was cold.

The only consistently miserable months are jan/feb in my opinion. March can also be miserable because we're expecting better weather and it might not necessarily happen. In that way, March sometimes feels like the worst month for me. This year, March was horrible and made me upset. But, it can also be decent depending on the year...

[aaliyahsmith]

Hello friend,
The "cold season" for Chicago is November to March. March is the beginning of spring here, but you have to still be prepared for some very cool or occasional cold and snowy days. the above poster is right....its really late april and may when you can be pretty sure your out of the woods!

Have a Great Day !

[brian571]

I'd say the cold season is really mid-November through mid-March. Mid-late November and early-mid March are typically in the upper 30s to low-mid 40s. We don't usually get too much accumulating snow in November or March, but it definitely can and does happen. January and February are the coldest and snowiest by far. This year was absolutely brutal in both departments.

I'm familiar with Denver winters and they're pretty different than they are here. We don't have nearly the swings that Denver does, the snow tends to stick around much longer, and it's much cloudier here. The biggest difference I notice though is that, because the air is so much drier in Denver and because it's usually sunny, cold temperatures don't feel as cold there. On the contrary, when there's a 20 mph wind off the lake here in the winter, even the 20s can feel bitterly cold. If you can get over the cloudiness though, I don't think it'd be too difficult for someone from Denver to live in Chicago.

[The Villages Guy]

Originally Posted by vw1116

Can anyone weigh in on the typical duration of winter in Chicago?

Tempwise - 8 months. 6 of them simply brutal and 2 just bad.

[chiMT]

Now that's hilarious.