Is this winter or spring? Neither. It’s Chicago
BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN AND LAUREN FITZPATRICK Staff Reporters January 31, 2012 7:30AM
People walking through the Daley Center. Tuesday, January 31, 2012 | Brian Jackson~Sun-Times
Article Extras
Updated: March 2, 2012 8:10AM
Tom Duhig did the normally unthinkable Tuesday afternoon when he stepped outside for a cigarette break. He left his coat inside. Purposely. On the last day of January. In Chicago. Duhig’s teeth weren’t chattering. He wasn’t pulling the sleeves down on his Irish fisherman’s sweater to warm his hands. And he certainly wasn’t dreaming about leaving work early to ski or go ice fishing as temperatures soared to nearly 60 degrees. “I should have taken a half day today and played nine holes,” the Cook County sheriff’s administrative assistant said as he took a drag in the unseasonably warm weather outside the Criminal Courthouse at 26th and California. Law school student Ashley Petrey, who didn’t wear a jacket over her pantsuit while chatting with a friend a few feet away, wondered if the higher powers were teasing her in light of her plans move to Florida this spring. “This winter, God’s mocking me,” the 27-year-old “fourth generation Chicagoan” said. “He’s showing me just how good the Chicago weather can be.” What a difference a year makes. As January came to a close in 2011, temperatures hovered in the 20s and area residents braced for the massive blizzard that blanketed the city in 21.2 inches of snow and paralyzed Lake Shore Drive. This year? Tuesday’s high was 57 degrees — shy of the record 65 degrees on Jan. 31, 1989, but warm enough to define the relatively mild winter we’re having so far. No one was shoveling out cars, dragging out kitchen chairs or milk crates to hold parking spaces or slipping on ice. At the Lincoln Park Zoo, the crowds, which are usually in the “dozens” in the winter ballooned to the “hundreds” Tuesday, zoo spokeswoman Tiffany Ruddle said. And animals such as ostriches, giraffes, black rhinos, warthogs, kangaroos and alpacas stayed out longer to greet their fans. “As far as they’re concerned, it’s a spring or a fall day,” Ruddle said. Who can blame them? For 20 days in December and 15 days in January, the mercury reached 40 degrees or higher, according to Ben Deubelbeiss, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. That means fewer gloves, hats and headache-inducing, tire-wrecking problems like potholes, which are caused by repeated freezing and thawing of water. In January of last year, there were 5,900 reports of potholes, said Pete Scales, a spokesman for the city’s Transportation Department. During the same month this year, the number of reported potholes tumbled down to 3,400. The streets have also been spared heavy dousing of salt with the minimal snowfall, giving Streets and Sanitation Department workers “more time to breathe” and a “chance to sleep through the night,” spokesman Matt Smith said. To date, the city has only used 76,000 tons of salt on city streets. Last year’s two-day blizzard ate up 86,000 tons in salt and 144,000 tons in December and January, Smith said. Of course, a not-so-chilly forecast isn’t good news for everyone. Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields acknowledged this week that “a lot of” the January murder spike is tied to this year’s balmier winter weather. A less serious concern is what could happen to gardens. “Nature is going to do what nature is going to do,” said Jackie Riffice, the master gardener and founder of Prairie Godmothers in Flossmoor, a company that advocates native gardening. “I don’t know that there’s anything to prevent a bulb from springing or a bud from springing,” she said of the weather’s effect on plants. “Quite honestly, that is the mystery and the nature of gardening.” The plants and grasses she leans on in her projects — varieties native to Illinois and the Midwest — will always fare better in cold snaps or warm spells. “They can survive our goofy winters and crazy summers,” she said. “They’re not always the showiest plants, but they’re the hardiest.” “I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” said Steve Meyer, horticulturist for the Garfield Park and Lincoln Park conservatories said. “It can sort of ruin the leaves, but the buds are deep inside. By next year, the plants won’t even know what happened.” Those who have endured Chicago’s past brutal winter aren’t sure what is happening either as they watch joggers run by in shorts and forgo the hot chocolate. But they aren’t complaining. Nor are they holding their collective breath. “I bet this time next week we’ll have a wind chill of zero below,” Duhig said. As a courthouse colleague’s of his summed it up in a sly smile: “This is April Fool’s weather.”
Comments Click here to view or make a comment