In the last three weeks, Chicago has seen roughly three feet of snow. That equates to an estimated 48 million tons blanketing the city.
How does that work? Let's break it down.
From Jan. 26 to Feb. 15 of this year, the area saw 34.1 inches of snow. By Thursday, that number had climbed to 36.9 inches.
Chicago is 149,800 acres in size. One acre is equivalent to 43,560 square feet, which means Chicago is 6,525,288,000 square feet in size.
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Data shows 3 feet of light, fluffy snow weighs roughly 15 pounds per square foot.
When you covert pounds to tons, that means the snow that fell on Chicago over the last three weeks weighs roughly 48,939,660 tons.
The last three weeks in Chicago have been the snowiest three-week stretch the city has seen since January 1979, which marked one of the most notable blizzards in city history.
In fact, Chicago has seen as much snow as it typically sees in an entire winter season in the last few weeks alone. The city on average sees about 36 inches of snow in a winter.
And more snow is on the way.
After Thursday morning brought additional lake-effect showers to the area, another round of potentially accumulating snow is expected over the weekend.
The next chance for snow, or an icy mix of snow and rain, comes with some warmer temperatures Sunday.
Snow could develop in the early afternoon and evening with a few inches of accumulation expected. An icy mix of snow and rain possible towards the Kankakee River Valley.
