<p>This is my first time visiting Chicago, and I'm so excited! I'm currently staying at a family friend's house. The suburbs are beautiful here. And the weather? So much better than Houston. I went firefly-catching for the first time in years. (Houston doesn't have any fireflies...)</p>
<p>Tomorrow, I get to go downtown with an international student (Duke) who is interning in Chicago. I'm quite excited about that too. </p>
<p>On Aug. 3rd, I get to visit UChicago's campus. Is anybody else going for the information session/ tour?</p>
<p>How interesting - a place with worse weather than Chicago!</p>
<p>Seriously, Spring, Summer and Fall are wonderful times there. Winter is an acquired taste, but there are so many indoor activities (not to mention Ratner Gym) that you need not notice. </p>
<p>MSHP, are you from Chicago? Fall and Spring are fiiiine compared to where I'm from. Spring basically doesn't exist in my New England hometown. Chicago has a very balanced four seasons compared to most of the US. </p>
<p>Oh, I'm not saying fall and spring are terrible! Quite the opposite, actually. My only gripe about the in-between seasons is that they're not long enough for me to enjoy!</p>
<p>And wintertime is simply amazing in Chicago (especially when it snowwws). Oh, and you gotta love the blizzards and sub-zero temperatures in February! I loved school cancellations due to extreme weather!</p>
<p>You begin to yearn for snow-- apparently, there's a point (about 15 degrees fahrenheit and below) when it's too cold to snow, and a lot of days in Chicago are below 15 degrees. Snow means it's warm outside. The campus also looks magical when it's snowing.</p>
<p>unalove makes a good point about snow. Compared to many other parts of the north, especially the northeast, Chicago is not a high snow area. It does get some lake effect snow, but most of the lake effect snow from Lake Michigan is east and south of the lake. Chicago is west of it.</p>
<p>The reasons for the paucity of snow in the midwest are complex. Temperature has a lot to do with it. As unalove pointed out, as the temperature drops, so does the snowfall amount, because the air holds less moisture. The other cause is a source of moisture. So Lake Michigan affects snow in two ways. First, it moderates the temperature, allowing the air to hold more moisture. Second it acts as a moisture source. Curiously, both effects are early season effects. Once the lake ices over, which it does to a great extent in colder years, the lake effect snow tapers off. This can best be seen with Buffalo NY, whose famous snowfalls usually end by January (when Lake Erie, the shallowest Great Lake, freezes over) in contrast with Rochester, which gets pounded all winter because lake Ontario never freezes</p>