Chicago Snow: City Ties Highest 1-Day Snowfall Total This Season

Snowfall Ties City's Highest 1-Day Total This Season
Rolando Zabala cleans snow off the street during a snow day in Chicago, Monday, Feb. 4, 2013. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Rolando Zabala cleans snow off the street during a snow day in Chicago, Monday, Feb. 4, 2013. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

A storm system that dumped snow over the central Plains arrived in Chicago late Thursday evening, bringing with it some of the most significant snowfall the city has seen in the city this largely snow-free winter.

Nearly three inches of snow fell at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport through 6 a.m. Friday, tying the highest one-day total of snow accumulation so far this season in the city, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The snowy conditions made for hazardous driving conditions that sent the city's full fleet of 284 snow plows out to main streets and Lake Shore Drive, according to ABC Chicago, and led to the cancellation of nearly 400 flights at O'Hare.

Snow accumulation was larger outside of the city -- as of 7 a.m. Friday, 5 inches fell in Woodstock, 4 inches in Rockford and 3.8 inches in Downers Grove, CBS Chicago reports -- but still was dwarfed by snowfall totals seen from the same storm system when it walloped parts of Kansas, northern Oklahoma and Missouri with more than a foot of snow.

A winter weather advisory remains in effect in Chicago through 6 p.m. Friday, but any additional snowfall during the day was expected to mix with rain and is not anticipated to accumulate significantly, according to NBC Chicago.

Prior to the late-week snowfall, Chicago had only seen 10.9 inches of snow all winter, only 40 percent of the city's normal amount.

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