As spring begins, a look back on an average Chicago winter

First, it felt like it might be a mild winter.

Then a brutal one. Then, Chicago got a taste of spring in February.

So how good or bad was this winter?

In terms of cold, we ended up averaging just slightly above normal, less than a degree warmer for meteorological winter – the period of December through February.

Snowfall was just above normal.

The mean temperature in Chicago over the winter months was recorded at 26.9°F, just 0.5°F above the National Weather Service’s normal 30-year value of 26.4°F.

The last two winters were more than four degrees warmer than normal, and the two winters before that were 3.1°F and 7.5°F below normal, respectively.

Snowfall for the season came out at 30.2 inches at O’Hare and 31.6 inches at Midway. The 30-year normal snow totals are 28.3 inches for O’Hare and 29.5 inches for Midway.

There were no significant snow events in the fall, but with a snowy March Chicago could hit its yearly normal snow total of 38 inches.

A season that looks normal on the books won’t necessarily feel normal to everyone who lives through it, Northwestern University climate scientist Daniel Ethan Horton said, noting that “people’s impressions of a season are often flavored by the extreme events.”

Nearly 20 inches of snow fell during a ten-day period at the beginning of February.

Horton also pointed out that O’Hare recorded its second largest precipitation event ever for the month of February, with 2.68 inches of rain falling between Feb. 18 — Feb. 21.