Dear Tom,
We went through the first half of winter with practically no snow, but it turned around since then. Has March ever been the snowiest month?
— Jesse Cardenas
Dear Jesse,
In an average snow season, nearly three-quarters of Chicago’s seasonal snowfall of 37.1 inches comes down in the winter months of December, January and February, with the remainder falling in the autumn and spring (mostly in November and March). Those are the averages, but in any given snow season a big storm occurring in November or March can distort the monthly totals for that season. March is prone to that, and it’s been the season’s snowiest month in 22 of the last 128 snow seasons. April of 1938, with 13.6 inches, was the snowiest month in Chicago’s 1937-38 season. Don’t put away the snow shovels just yet.
