How bad is the snow? (Chicago: live, store, buses)

[sharkylittleton]

At all costs avoid the slush puddles. They can be and usually are much deeper than they look while swallowing your entire leg.

[i blame history]

Originally Posted by sharkylittleton

At all costs avoid the slush puddles. They can be and usually are much deeper than they look while swallowing your entire leg.

Thanks to this comment, I am now going to have an everlasting, debilitating fear of slush puddles. LOL. But hey, it could come in handy, so thanks for the warning... I might just not leave home between November and April.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by i blame history

Thanks to this comment, I am now going to have an everlasting, debilitating fear of slush puddles. LOL. But hey, it could come in handy, so thanks for the warning... I might just not leave home between November and April.

The worst are the slush puddles that overtop your boot when you step in them. There's nothing worse than the feeling of cold, wet, dirty slush filling your shoe. It seems to happen to me at least once a year.

By the way, slush puddles are pretty darn rare in November and April, and much of December and March as well. Late December, January, February, and early March are the months to be wary of.

[aragx6]

So I'm looking at long down winter coats -- one from LL Bean, once from Land's End. Anyone have experience with either or a suggestion for other safe bets?

I have several cute trendy coats, but I need one for those days where it's too icky to be fashionable, especially since I live in the city now and won't be just hopping from apartment to car to office like last winter.

[sharkylittleton]

Originally Posted by i blame history

Thanks to this comment, I am now going to have an everlasting, debilitating fear of slush puddles. LOL. But hey, it could come in handy, so thanks for the warning... I might just not leave home between November and April.

I speak from experience. It sucks to be "that" guy who has a soaked shoe.

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

The worst are the slush puddles that overtop your boot when you step in them. There's nothing worse than the feeling of cold, wet, dirty slush filling your shoe. It seems to happen to me at least once a year.

By the way, slush puddles are pretty darn rare in November and April, and much of December and March as well. Late December, January, February, and early March are the months to be wary of.

The slush filled boot usually requires the Walgreens bag o' socks run at 12am.

[Attrill]

I've had really good luck with LL Bean, they seem to have more parkas that are geared to camping and outdoor activities. I've had good luck with Columbia and North Face as well. A good parka combined with a selection of different weight wool sweaters will get you through almost anything.

Good gloves, hats, and boots are also a must.

The snow really isn't that bad here. In the 15 years I've been here I can only recall 4 or 5 times that there was snowfall of more than 8-10" at one time. The only times it bothers me when walking is when people don't shovel their sidewalks, the snow melts, and then refreezes as solid ice.

[snoylekim]

You learn the 'penguin walk' and develop snow legs after the first few light snows ..ice and slushuddles are the enemy . One learns that snow on the parkway is much less slippery than the ice streaks on sidewalks, and how to balance one leg on a slipperyass curb while stretching over the slush-oil puddle .. There's an art to walking in Chicago from late December thru mid-late March ...

[Drover]

Originally Posted by snoylekim

You learn the 'penguin walk' and develop snow legs after the first few light snows ..ice and slushuddles are the enemy . One learns that snow on the parkway is much less slippery than the ice streaks on sidewalks, and how to balance one leg on a slipperyass curb while stretching over the slush-oil puddle .. There's an art to walking in Chicago from late December thru mid-late March ...

Or you can just skip all the penguin-walking and "snow legs" by getting yourself a pair of Yaktrax.

[Chicago60614]

That's so true about the slush puddles! I always just walk around them, but some people who don't pay attention will step in them and then have a look of horror as they realize it's about a foot deep, not 2 inches. Of course they're not ALL that deep, but it's more deceiving than rain puddles for whatever reason. If you don't see ground poking out somewhere in the slush, just walk around (not a big deal).

But yeah, I don't mind the snow at all, I actually LOVE huge snowstorms. We haven't had any LARGE snowstorms in awhile though, and they're very infrequent.

We get an averag of 38" a year, although other than last year it's been pretty snow free here for the past 5-7 years. It's normally the type of thing where you get anywhere from 1" to 4", or maybe if you're lucky 5" to 7", but rarely is it above that. Maybe once a year or two will you see something 10" or more. It all tends to melt away within 2 weeks as well, so over the course of the winter you don't see huge piles of snow piling up over and over on top of each other. I would say at least a few times a month you melt the snow off to nothing on sidewalks, then it comes again...

People tend to scream "foul" on that statement and say snow sticks around for months on end and blah blah blah. If you really step back though it's not that bad, it's just that when it does snow, people get annoyed and take notice and that's what they remember. They don't remember the 3 weeks after that it didn't snow, because they're all busy complaining about the cold

This is all "average" of course, a few years ago it only snowed twice the whole winter, the first wasn't until the end of January, and both times were just a few inches. Then last year we had a ton of snow in January and February, but it wasn't really enough to shut the city down or do anything more than make people roll their eyes.

[Venom]

Everyone has pretty much covered it, but yeah, Sometimes it snows alot, sometimes a little. Fresh snow is cool. Then there is the slush that's all brown. Then there is that snow that melted and refroze making it HARD. Break early if you drive, slow turns.