Quote:
Originally Posted by Handro
One thing you'll notice about Chicagoans: we never get sick of talking about the weather.
Welcome! Chicago certainly does get cold but I've always thought it was a bit of a misconception, glad to see some data back it up. A few low points in the winter months but not sustained brutality of single digit temps for months on end the way I think many people imagine it.
Yes, much of the city was closed down for the couple days this past January that it got that cold (schools, universities, private businesses, etc.)
|
I agree - Chicago is cold, no doubt, but it's sometimes overplayed because people will make others believe that the temperatures or wind chills are almost always in the negatives. There are obviously days where it can get pretty cold - and also being right near the lake on cold days does not help at all because of the wind. From a pure temperature perspective in the last handful of years of 351 days, the temperature without wind chill was only in the negatives at any point in the day 15 of those days. You might talk about wind chill which is more than valid. Consider the fact that at 20 degrees, you need a wind of 36 MPH minimum to even get into negative wind chills. At 15 degrees, you need a wind of 15 MPH minimum to hit the negative wind chills. Obviously this happens in Chicago - 114 of the 351 days were between 0 and 20 degrees as a low. If we estimate that 75% of those days had wind chills in the negatives, then we're at a combined 28% or 29% of all winter days in the last handful of years that had temperatures either in the negatives at any point of the day or conditions that made it feel like the negatives at any point in the day. Throw in another 5% for days that felt more like 5 degrees above zero.
It's not a small percentage and it's not super rare but it's also not the most common of conditions either.
As a small aside, I grew up in Minnesota and not even close to the coldest parts of the state. We are visiting Minnesota right now - a part that's a 5 hour drive from Chicago. When we connected in Chicago, it was 55 degrees with no snow on the ground. When we landed in Minnesota, there were at least 4 inches of snow on the ground and it was 35 degrees. Now that 35 degrees is about the average historical temperature of Chicago at this time of year. The difference? Where we are, everyone is really happy about the "warm Christmas" of the mid 30s which is over 10 degrees above average. To give you another idea about this, and again only a 5 hour drive from Chicago - there's been 23 days this year alone where the temperatures were in the negatives. That is over 50% greater than what Chicago has had total in the last 4 years as far as just pure temperature goes.
I'm not here to say Chicago is not cold - because it is. But I also find the coldness overplayed because people will make others believe that it's always in the negatives when it's not or that Chicago gets a ton of snow but it only gets a moderate amount of snow (Boston for example gets more snow than Chicago). Statistically, you have about a 5% chance based on the last handful of years that temperatures will ever reach in the negatives and maybe a 30% or 35% chance total that either temperatures will be in the negatives or that wind chills will be in the negatives at any point in the day (even if just for 30 minutes).