Business has picked up the last couple of days for Vincent Brown and Clifton Robbins.
The full-time carpenters from Englewood moonlight as snow removers in the winter, but there wasn’t much demand this season until Chicago was hit with its first major snowstorm of the year this weekend.
While shoveling out their fourth and final South Side house Saturday morning — after clearing 17 a day earlier — Brown admitted he wouldn’t mind another break in the nasty winter weather.
They usually do one or two houses before heading inside to warm up and then setting back out to do more work.
“If you got heart troubles, you better get somebody else to do it because the snow can be tiresome,” Brown, 60, said of the “heart attack” snow. “It’s exercise too.”
Forecasters urged similar caution after 6.7 inches of snow were recorded at O’Hare Airport and 5.8 inches at Midway. Measurements were less than half that closer to the lakefront.
While the snowfall is mostly done, the cold is expected to get much worse. A wind chill advisory is in effect until Wednesday morning, with overnight lows plummeting as far as 35 degrees below zero.
Sunday’s forecasted high of 2 would mark the first time since Dec. 23, 2022, that Chicago’s high temperature doesn’t crack the single digits, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Kluber.
No bomb ‘cyclone’
Residents weren’t thinking about that just yet, though, while digging out from the snowstorm that started Friday.
Marcus Moore, a Richton Park resident, ventured into the city Saturday morning to clear snow off his mother’s and aunt’s homes on 87th street in the Gresham neighborhood.
“Gotta make sure to take care of the women in my life,” Moore said.
He said the blizzard was hyped up, but as he stood on the steps bundled up, he noted the dropping temperatures weren’t.
While packing a considerable punch, Friday’s storm was not categorized as a “bomb cyclone,” a rapidly intensifying low-pressure storm that typically happens only a few times nationwide every year. It strengthened for 17 hours, falling short of the 24-hour criteria, Kluber said.
Moore said he didn’t mind the little bit of snow that hit his family’s South Side block, recalling larger blizzards during his time in the area. He added that his daughter makes it easier to enjoy.
“I could do with a little snow,” Moore said. “As far as my daughter, she likes the snow, so we like playing in the snow. … I guess being in Chicago so long you just end up adapting to it.”
While Moore observed that city plows hadn’t cleared many neighborhood blocks — as usual — he said seeing residents take care of each other, especially the elderly, warmed him up in the frigid temperatures.
“It brings a sense of peace,” Moore said. “Even though there’s so much craziness going on in the world, just seeing people come together and help each other out in times like this, it gives a sense of humanity out there.”
Winter fun before the deep freeze
While much of the city was out shoveling, some residents were headed to the beach.
Russell Beaver and Pete Meersman were riding down the Lakefront Trail on their fat tire bikes — which have larger tires that make traversing the snow easier — hoping to make it all the way to Hollywood Beach.
“We are taking advantage of the snow and trying to make the most of what’s usually a gloomy part of the year,” Beaver said.
The two friends met through their cycling team and said they usually enjoy other subsections of the sport.
Though they had only had a few runs with the big tires, the cyclists said they were enjoying the change because it made them stop to take in what was around them, including some “very friendly” birds along the trail.
Meersman, a Lakeview resident since 2016, said he’s not usually a fan of Chicago’s winters, but that his passion for cycling was getting him out of the house.
“A good hobby will have you come out in whether you usually wouldn’t want to,” Meersman said. “It’s actually a joy to ride.”
Stocking up
Other residents were preparing for the quickly dropping temperatures.
Esther Williams, 62, was on her way to a Garfield Park Aldi Saturday for her usual shopping trip, this time getting out ahead of the cold.
The West Loop resident suggested people carry water to stay hydrated, and said she used cough drops herself to keep from getting sick — methods that Williams said have yet to fail her.
That aside, she said she was enjoying a break from the unseasonably warm and dry winter the city’s had so far.
This winter’s first 43 days have been the third-mildest on record, according to the weather service, with an average temperature of 37.1 degrees — nearly 8 degrees above normal.
“I love the seasons, it’s why I stayed here,” Williams, who was raised in Arkansas but moved back to the city in 1974, said.
Howard Holmes, who usually stays a few blocks away from the Garfield Park warming center, stood outside it Saturday afternoon.
He said while he was fortunate to be able to stay so close to the city’s only 24/7 warming center, at 10 S. Kedzie Ave., he lamented the fact that more shelters aren’t available. “They should probably open a few other places,” Holmes said.
While Holmes enjoys watching movies at the warming center, he said he wishes there were more resources dedicated to helping those staying there connect with financial aid and housing.
“That’s what people really need,” Holmes said.
Cook County runs 24-hour warming centers at the Skokie Courthouse, 5600 Old Orchard Road, Maywood Courthouse, 1500 Maybrook Drive, and Markham Courthouse, 16501 S. Kedzie Ave.
Expanded hours are in effect during the cold snap at:
Englewood Community Service Center
1140 W. 79th St
312-747-0200
Dr. Martin Luther King Community Service Center
4314 S. Cottage Grove
312-747-2300
North Area Community Service Center
845 W. Wilson Ave.
312-744-2580
South Chicago Community Service Center
8650 S. Commercial Ave.
312-747-0500
Trina Davila Community Service Center
4312 W. North Ave.
312-744-2014
