The city's official recording site at O'Hare has measured just 10 inches of snow so far this season
If it feels like the city of Chicago hasn’t gotten its normal amount of snow so far this year, then it isn’t just your imagination.
In fact, the city is so far behind its normal snowfall totals this year that most of our readers have never been through a winter quite like this.
According to NBC 5 Storm Team meteorologist Kevin Jeanes, the 10 inches of snow recorded at O’Hare International Airport so far this season marks the lowest snowfall total the city has seen at this point in a winter since all the way back in 1944, a span of 81 years.
That winter saw some late-hitting snowfall events, giving the city 24 inches of accumulation over the course of the season, according to the National Weather Service.
The lowest snowfall total ever recorded in a season in the city of Chicago occurred between 1920 and 1921, when just 9.8 inches of snow fell over an entire calendar year.
More recently, the winter of 2011-12 saw just 19.8 inches of snow fall, the 10 th -lowest accumulation total since recordkeeping began in 1884.
In Jan. 2025, Chicago reported just 4.6 inches of snow, just 40% of its normal total for the month of January, according to the National Weather Service.
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The city’s numbers could be impacted by several coming snow events this week, including one Wednesday that could bring several inches of accumulation, according to the NBC 5 Storm Team.
More snow could occur Saturday and into Sunday next weekend, though the exact track of that storm system remains unclear at this time.