INSIDE
SPORTS Spartans get even with Plainfield East
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Our Community, Our News
JANUARY 24, 2013
Vol. 7 No. 29
Hold the salt
Another mild winter could come with a cost this spring By Laura Katauskas Staff Reporter
Whether or not you like the white, fluffy stuff coating the streets, the lack of snow and unseasonable temperatures are a mixed blessing for most, with the ramifications of a mild winter lurking to a possible problematic spring. Jan. 14 marked the end of the first half of meteorological winter, according to the National Weather Service, and for the second year in a row, the first half of winter has started out abnormally warm with much below-average snowfall. Without any meaningful cold or snow so far this winter, it’s not just unusual,
but record-breaking. The first day of the 2012-13 winter with a sub-freezing high was Jan. 1, which ties the record for the latest first sub-freezing high on record in Chicago. The Chicago area also set a new record for the most number of consecutive days without a sub-freezing high temperature at 310 days, though that streak ended Dec. 31. The NWS reports that by looking at the number of consecutive days without a snow depth measured of at least 1 inch, can tell the story of just how unusual it is for Chicago to go this long without the ground being covered. Through Jan. 17, it has been 326 days since Chicago has officially had an inch of snow on the
Bugle File Photo
Scenes like these from the cleanup of the February 2011 blizzard that paralysed the Midwest have become a distant memory in the wake of unseasonably warm temperatures the past two years.
ground, making this the longest stretch of its kind on record in Chicago. The previous streak of 313 days without an inch of snow was set in 1940.
Hoping to hit the snow hill or partake in the average winter activities, some See NO SNOW, page 10