After 335 days, Chicago has finally broken its record-setting streak of snowless days, the National Weather Service said.
The Friday morning snowfall reached 1.1 inches at O'Hare International Airport by 9:30 a.m., according to the weather service. It is the first day of the 2012-2013 winter where Chicago got more than one-inch of accumulation -- ending record streaks for the latest first one-inch snowfall and the longest streak without an inch of snow, the weather service said.
The previous record for snow-free days was 280, set in 1994. The city surpassed that record on Dec. 10, the weather service said. The previous record for the latest one-inch snowfall in Chicago was Jan. 17, 1899.
According to the weather service, some flurries were expected to fall late in the afternoon, but no additional accumulation was forecast.
The city's "Snow Command" deployed 199 snowplows to Lake Shore Drive and the city's other main streets Friday morning, according to a statement from the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation. The plows will begin working on residential streets after the main streets have been cleared and covered with salt.
While authorities encouraged drivers to be cautious during their morning rush-hour commute, Illinois State Police said there were numerous cars involved in about 10 crashes Friday morning in the Chicago region.
One of the largest crashes involved nine cars that collided on the Kennedy Expressway near the North Avenue exit, state police said. One person suffered minor injuries.
With the 1.1 inches that fell on Friday morning, the season's total snowfall for Chicago through 9:30 a.m. now stands at 2.8 inches.
Traffic was moving well by noon-time on Friday, but the first significant snowfall in Chicago threw drivers for a loop during the morning commute. Frustration abounds when the roads get slick and the delays build.More>>
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