Why is the weather in Chicago so much colder than other northern cities? Chicago’s latitude is not that much different from NYC. But the temps get far lower in Chicago.
I lived in Chicago for a short time many many years ago. But I never did quite understand why it was so cold there.
@sgopal2 NYC probably benefits from the jet stream. The Midwest gets the polar stuff from Canada. Twin Cities in MN has average lower temps than Moscow.
@sgopal2 Two words to answer your question: polar vortex.
Here is an article that does a decent explanation that a layman like me can understand (or so I thought 
)
https://mashable.com/article/polar-vortex-returns-coldest-temperatures-2019/#h.dCqSFKOiqK
PV isn’t the only explanation. Chicago has colder avg. temps than NYC every winter.
I remember leaving for Philly with my husband when wind chill was -40 in Chicago. When we arrived at my in-laws the big front page news was that it was 8 degrees above zero in Philadelphia. Everyone was freaking out. We were like "ahh - warm . . . " This was 1989.
@sgopal2 here is the answer to the question you posed. However, stuff like polar vortex obviously makes the Midwest and upper NE famous for feeling - well - quite polar in some years.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/weather/ct-wea-0305-asktom-20150304-column.html
There was once a form of cultural history that gave quite a lot of weight to the way institutions are shaped by, among other things, the weather. Doesn’t this present blast of Chicago weather force us to consider the more general question of the extent to which the culture of the University of Chicago has been shaped by the climate of the place in which its students and profs work? --That’s a big question. First get out of the cold.
New York benefits from the Gulf Stream, not so much the jet stream. (The jet stream moves around a lot. It often divides cold areas from not-so-cold ones in the winter, but it undulates like a snake. Here in the Middle Atlantic, sometimes we’re on one side of the line, other times on the other.)
Anyway, the Northeastern cities that are closer in latitude to Chicago than NYC are Boston and Cleveland. They are both a lot colder than NYC, too, even though Boston is also on the ocean.
So on days like this where it’s not cold enough that they shut down nonessential operations but it’s still -18 at night with windchill even lower, what gear do they dress the foot patrol in? Are there agreed upon temperature cutoffs for when they stop having security walk the street?
As an employer this has to be a tough dilemma to negotiate. Of course your first concern is not allowing your employees (the security) to be injured. But a close secondary concern is that you’re still able to provide adequate security. Although crime in general decreases with cold weather seems like it would create some huge security issues if it became general knowledge that under a certain temp there was no security stationed in certain places.
@milee30 In my honest opinion, the blue coat security persons just serve as a symbolic deterrent to crime. They don’t carry any firearms and frankly speaking many of them are out of shape. So they probably can’t do much if there is an armed robbery a couple blocks away. However, their presence make everyone feel safer and would likely deter criminals from doing anything at that street corner. The blue coat security persons are usually stationed where there are many students like the bus stop in front of Booth. There is even one occasionally stationed at 53rd and Dorchester shopping plaza.
As far as I know UCPD do not do foot patrol. They do cruise around Hyde Park in their signature black and white with U of C logo Ford Interceptor SUV. And UCPD will frequently have one patrol car at 58th and University (to guard the Main Quad) and another one at 59th and Ellis (to guard the South and BJ). I don’t see a significant reduction in security because the UCPD police car patrol will continue.
Agree the “blue coats” are a symbolic deterrent. I have no illusions they’d tackle or fight off a criminal; I talked to a half dozen of them during the parent drop off days in O Week. They were generally friendly, observant, diligent people who weren’t there to do hand to hand combat, but more to serve as an extra set of eyes to report issues but more importantly to visibly signal to would-be criminals that someone is watching, that crime won’t go unnoticed.
I think that’s a very powerful deterrent, though. Similar to how neighborhoods that have the stereotypical old women sweeping their stoops or sitting on their front porch for hours have lower rates of crime. It’s not that anyone expects grandma (or the blue coats) to wrestle a mugger, it’s the message that this is a place that people care about, people are watching, you can’t cause an issue and go unnoticed.
Patrol cars serve a purpose, but I think the blue coats’ visible presence is hugely important as well.
@JHS - that’s what I meant - Gulf Stream.
@marlowe1 - yes - get out of the cold and into the light. Literally and figuratively. When the weather is always nice, other pleasures present a real temptation away from engaging that brain matter. However, this is not to say that “nice” weather elites don’t exist - they certainly do. In large part because older, distinguished scholars and faculty tend not to like cold weather.
I think they also make the kids a little more diligent - in the same symbolic way. By seeing them on the corners I believe it makes kids aware - at least my D - that they/she is in a city and needs to be aware and observe her surroundings. As a parent, I am super glad they are there. I agree, @milee30, the school needs to make sure they keep them safe in these temps, ideally without signaling a decline in security.
"I think that’s a very powerful deterrent, though. Similar to how neighborhoods that have the stereotypical old women sweeping their stoops or sitting on their front porch for hours have lower rates of crime. It’s not that anyone expects grandma (or the blue coats) to wrestle a mugger, it’s the message that this is a place that people care about, people are watching, you can’t cause an issue and go unnoticed.
Patrol cars serve a purpose, but I think the blue coats’ visible presence is hugely important as well."
This is non political and I think I can trust Maroon on that
https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2019/1/29/security-officers-removed-outdoor-posts-campus-hun/
If I were a criminal, it would be bad odds to try to look for target on Wednesday night. There would be far fewer potential targets on the streets of Hyde Park/Kenwood/Woodlawn but the danger of the criminal being caught stranded in “barbaric” cold weather is much higher. On a risk reward base, the criminal would most likely choose to stay home too. So the absence of blue coat security would unlikely make any discernible difference in overall security.
^ Good to see they have a well-defined plan for different temps and that the employer will issue warm gear. I don’t know enough about cold weather to weigh in on whether the temp plan and gear are reasonable, but it’s encouraging that there’s a plan so at least some thought has gone into it.
If you Google UChicago Webcam, there is a good shot of the Quad’s east side. It is pretty vacant of pedestrian activity right now.
I think the hard thing would be to stand still on a corner. If you’re moving it isn’t nearly as bad. But to stand in one location (even walking around in a small circle) would be torture. Plus I don’t think many of those corners are sheltered from the wind and streets tend to “wind tunnel” and amplify the wind. It are days like this I am happy for my inside job.
Looks cold on the webcam, but its days like this that I enjoy living in Cabo during the winter. Sorry, couldn’t resist.
And you can see the cranes for Rubenstein and the new dorm in the background.
Not sure that severe cold will slow the construction down - that’s usually accomplished by precipitation.
Shamelessly answering my own query at #25 and building on @JBStillFlying at #30, I posit that when we inhabitors of tender human bodies suitable for the African savannahs find ourselves in very cold places we feel a thought- provoking sense of estrangement. I had that feeling long ago when I came up from Texas to Chicago and was forced to cross the Midway repeatedly through howling winds, bone-chilling cold and high drifts of snow. How did people ever settle this country, much less build mighty educational institutions? Well, precisely because we are humans, not woolly mammoths. No longer able to rely on the preferred human option of lying about and letting the fruit fall into our outstretched palms, we have to think and work. A Chicago winter stimulates effort, and what better place for it than at the University of Chicago! It must have been the U of C that the good Lord had in mind when he expelled our first parents from the Garden and bade them make their way East of Eden. I expect that the future they glimpsed as they looked eastward was a world of snow and cold. Possibly they also noticed Rockefeller Chapel somewhere off there in the distance.