Pardon me for being a busybody. I am just getting bombarded by local news about the upcoming snowstorm and my thoughts turn to all the students coming back from home to U of C.
To parents of first year from the Sun Belt: tomorrow (November 25th) travel will be extremely messy in the Chicago metropolitan area, especially after 3:00 pm when rain turns into snow. Local forecast is saying snow may come down at 1 inch per hour. Based on the weather map, however, I think Hyde Park will be spared the worst of the snow storm.
If you kid is flying in late afternoon to O’Hare, then he/she may have some difficulties getting a cab/Uber. ORD may get 9 to 10 inches of snow whereas half or even less of that amount may fall in Hyde Park.
Thank you for your update @85bears46! We’ve tried to convince him to leave at 6:00 am, but he didn’t want to change his plans. He’ll be travelling to Midway, so maybe it’ll be easier getting back on campus.
Thanks for the warning @85bears46 ; he found Southwest allowed him to change flights with no charge to avoid the storm. Since his original flight was scheduled to land at 4:15 PM, that might have been in the middle of the yuck. It wasn’t fun getting up at 4 AM this morning to drive to the airport, but hopefully he’ll avoid the mess.
It’s already 72 degrees here and I’m watching a mom and baby manatee float around behind our lanai, so it’s hard to picture 9" of snow. Blech. Thanksgiving was nice but it went by too quickly.
Actually I kind of feel bad in raising the alarm as the latest forecast seems to indicate that the heavy snow may not start falling in the Loop until evening hours.
My saving grace is that airlines usually cancel or delay flights so it still makes sense to go to airport early to catch an earlier flight. You want to be at home or at the dorm by the time blizzard conditions hit at midnight tonight.
ugh, wish I had seen this last night. My son is scheduled to depart Denver at 4:30 and arrive Midway at 8pm - hopefully Midway is better than O’Hare tonight? Can’t change his flight and all later flights have already been cancelled - his is the last to leave Denver (Southwest) to Midway.
Curious, on the FB page looks like a lot of kids have had flights cancelled, I hope the professors are understanding… We will be scheduling his flight back in January a couple days early to hopefully avoid this.
My son’s flight has also been cancelled, as were his suitemates’, but he was able to book a Monday flight evening, as it seems the winds will have die down by then. I think the high winds is what is problematic for the flights, and the weather forecast indicates the wind will have die down by Monday afternoon. (Of course snow on the ground is another issue for getting back to campus, but I’m sure Chicago is equipped to deal with that.)
He’ll be missing Monday’s classes. He plans on emailing his professor. At least he’ll get to finish some of his papers at home and submit them via drop box. It sort of worked out from his point of view at least, that he got to extend his vaca another day ;).
@caymusjordan For this storm at least MDW is much better than ORD. There is light snow at ORD already but MDW is likely free of snow until 8:00 pm tonight.
So far it seems most of the flight cancellations happen at ORD but not MDW. Hopefully your kid will arrive before the snow storm hits. It is the first snow storm of the year. People tend to freak out and overreact.
After all have arrived safely what you want to see is an epic snowfall, capable of creating memories. I have dined out on the Blizzard of '67 for a lifetime.
I remember moving to Hoboken in the winter of '96 for a new job and spent what would have been my first day at a new job in a bar drinking margaritas watching people cross country ski down Washington St…
With or without a snowstorm, my son is already having an epic time at UChicago, lol.
anyhoo, snowstorms in New York City are pretty surreal too. Traffic lights blinking on and off to empty streets, the silence and stillness with skyscrapers as a backdrop, and being able to play in the snow without a care.
Blizzard warning is all over Chicagoland. But it likely won’t hit O’Hare until 9pm CST. And it will hit Hyde Park at around midnight.
If I were 30 years younger, I would walk over to the Main Quad at 1:00 am and just sit at the bench at the Circle Garden and watch the heavy snowfall around me . I bet that there will be a few crazy undergrads doing snowball fights at the Main Quad too.
Wow - sitting up here in MN and shaking my head. D met up with family and extended in WI so was able to bus back and forth with no problems other than pretty heavy traffic both ways. This year was apparently record-setting in terms of volume. Hope everyone gets back to school safe and sound!
Hubby and I remember the Valentine’s Day Blizzard of '90. Waded through knee-deep snow for a block just to get to the Medici for dinner. Seemed like a good idea at the time . . .
Son is in the air - due to arrive Midway at 8pm! Said they added extra fuel “just in case”…Having a glass of wine and watching the flight tracker and thinking that I’d prefer that our daughter attend school a bit closer to home when the time comes!
Thanksgiving “snowstorm” postscript: very little snow in Hyde Park this morning. Maybe one inch. From what I was told, it was mostly freezing rain last night.
O’Hare got 7.5 inches. Midway got 5 inches. Here is another good example of difference of weather even within Chicago.
I think my kid is still planning to commute to her job in the loop today. I texted her as to whether it was necessary she go in. No response but I could almost hear the sigh and eye roll. I guess it’s between her and her boss LOL.
Not much snow in the loop, but Metra trains are experiencing big delays due to malfunctioning electrical (many in the area without power) and/or downed power lines on the tracks. Not sure about busses and “L” trains…
. I bet that there will be a few crazy undergrads doing snowball fights at the Main Quad too.