It's official. We got our first measurable snow early this morning. O'Hare reported .5" of fresh snow. 2011 now ties 1948 as the year with the 5th latest first measurable snow for a winter season. We now join more than a third of the country with snow cover. The National Snow Analysis from the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center reports that as of yesterday, 37.3% of the US had snow cover with an average depth of 1.8".
A good portion of that will probably melt next week as models are indicating a dramatic jet stream pattern shift. This pattern change will bring Chicago a mainly dry and mainly mild (for mid-December at least) week. Early indications are that milder than average temperatures might stick around right up to nearly Christmas.
The 8 to 14 day outlook for temperatures from the Climate Prediction Center has the bull's-eye of greatest probability for above average temperatures centered almost directly over Chicago. This forecast covers the period of December 16th through December 22nd.
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