Winter Snow Cover (Chicago: area, place, streets)

[brianpmcdonnell17]

On average, when does the Chicago area receive it's first and last measurable snow? How many Winter days have a trace or more of snow on the ground (Include days with out technical snow cover but piles of snow Streetside throughout the city)? What place in the Chicago area usually sees the most snow cover?

[knitgirl]

Better place to ask: Chicago Weather Center: Skilling's Forecast and Chicago Severe Weather Alerts

[ToriaT]

Short answer - Chicago usually sees its first snow in November generally around Thanksgiving time, although it could be earlier. Its usually not a deep snow. A couple years ago it snowed on Halloween. The last snow is usually in March or early April and again not usually a big snow but sometimes it could be....one year we got a big deep snow in early April. Again this is an exception. Another year I remember it snowed in early May. It was just flurries but snow all the same. Winter days with a trace or more of snow on the ground....I don't know how you would find that out does not sound like something they keep records for. There can be snow on the ground almost constantly from late December through February with snow falling every few days of various amounts. Then again there have been years where there is no snow on the ground in January and it rained with a thunderstorm and hit almost sixty degrees. It might have snowed a week later though. There is something called lake effect snow so sometimes it snows more in the band near the lake. And of course NW Indiana gets more snow than Chicago does. Other than these two factors it doesn't seem to have a certain pattern of any place getting more snow it depends on weather patterns.