Chicago's Snow Total Finally Exceeds an Inch

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

January 6,2013; 4:26PM,EST

This winter's snow total in Chicago finally exceeded an inch on Saturday, but there are other snow drought records for the city that remain unbroken.
A bit of snow returned to Chicago late Saturday, accumulating 0.4 of an inch and pushing this winter's snow total to 1.3 inches.
Only other three times, since snow record-keeping began in 1886, has it taken longer for Chicago to see the season's snow total reach an inch. Jan. 8, 1944, holds the record for the latest such occurrence.

Chicago's snow total, however, still lags behind cities located well to its south, such as El Paso, Little Rock and Oklahoma City, and the nearly 12 inches that typically falls in Chicago by this time of year.

Despite Saturday's snow, Chicago's historical streaks for lack of an inch of snow either on the ground or falling on a calendar day continue and will not be broken in the near future.

The streak for consecutive days without an inch of snow on the ground in Chicago rose to 315 days on Sunday, the city's all-time longest. The record was previously held by the stretch of 313 days that ended in early January 1940.
Sunday also marked the 317th straight day that Chicago has not seen an inch of snow fall on one calendar day, a streak that is approaching the record longest of 319 days from 1939 to early January 1940.
Currently tied for the eighth spot, this winter is moving up the list for the latest occurrence of an inch of snow on a calendar day. Jan. 17, 1899, sits at the top of that list, while Dec. 2 is the average date for this to happen in Chicago.
Snow is not in the forecast this week with dry weather and above-normal temperatures instead set to dominate.
A storm is expected to reach the Midwest during the latter part of the workweek, but will only be a rainmaker for Chicago.

Twitter user @jessy_rosmar uploaded this photo of snow in