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First snowfall arrives during Wednesday morning commute
FOX 32's Michele Fiore reports..
CHICAGO - A messy mix of rain and snow moved through Chicago on Wednesday, marking a record-breaking and unseasonably early first snowfall for Oct. 30 — with more snow expected on Halloween.
By 1 p.m., the storm dumped 1.2 inches of snow over a 12-hour period at O’Hare International Airport and left 48,000 ComEd customers without power before turning into mainly rain.
The snowfall was the first of the season and came weeks earlier than the average, according to weather service meteorologist Todd Kluber.
While Oct. 30 is the average day for the first snowflakes of the year, Chicago doesn’t get its first measurable snowfall until Nov. 17 on average, Kluber said.
Wednesday’s storm also broke a snowfall record for Oct. 30 previously held in 1923, when Chicago got 0.7 inches of snow, according to weather service meteorologist Jake Petr. Chicago had that record beat by 7 a.m., when O’Hare was recording 0.9 inches.
Halloween snow forecast
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The storm hit the western suburbs the hardest, dropping 3.4 inches of snow on Downers Grove by 7 a.m., Petr said. Other suburbs got between 2 and 3 inches.
A second wave of snow is expected to drop almost another inch of snow on Chicago Wednesday night into Halloween, Petr said.
“This could definitely impact the [Halloween] morning commute,” Petr said. “I’d take it slow, drive carefully.”
The next wave of snow will focus on the northwest and western suburbs, which could get between 1 and 3 inches, Petr said. Rockford is expected to be hit with between 4 and 6 inches.
The storm not only hampered the commute, but left thousands of ComEd customers without power.
ComEd reported that a total of 48,000 customers lost power at some time Wednesday, but that power was quickly restored to 44,000 of them, company spokeswoman Cristina Messenburg said. About 5,000 customers were still without power by 3 p.m., she said.
Despite the chaos brought on commuters and homeowners, O’Hare and Midway airports were reporting delays less than 15 minutes on average, and 54 total flight cancelations between them, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
After Halloween, temperatures will plummet into the 20s and wind chills could make it feel like the teens, Petr said. There’s a risk that melting snow could melt Thursday night into Friday morning and create hazardous driving conditions.
The weekend is expected to be dry, the weather service said, with temperatures staying mostly in the 30s.