TWO THINGS ended Monday night: 1984 and Chicago`s mild winter.
Snow began falling in the far northern and northwestern suburbs at about 4 p.m. Monday and by 6 p.m. in the Loop. By 8:30 p.m., O`Hare International Airport had to be closed until the heavy, wet snow could be removed from runways and taxiways.
The airport reopened at 10:30 p.m.
Weather forecasters expect up to 10 inches of snow in the northwestern suburbs by Tuesday night.
As partygoers began their New Year`s Eve celebrations, traffic slowed to a crawl throughout the metropolitan area and there were scores of minor accidents. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for Monday night and early Tuesday, which meant driving would be hazardous.
Two people were injured in a multi-car accident in the southbound Ryan Expressway at 47th Street just after 10 p.m.
THE FOUL weather didn`t hamper soccer fans heading to Chicago Stadium to watch the Sting win their 10th consecutive game or partygoers packing Division Street taverns for the big countdown to midnight.
”We had 10,085 at the game, that`s about our average,” said Sting spokesman Connie Kowal. ”We consider that a nice crowd considering the weather, because I`m sure it was a deterrent to some people.”
”Chicagoans are crazy,” said Richard Parrish, manager of She-nannigans bar, 16 W. Division. ”They don`t care about snow. They`re doing it up anyway.”
The bad weather probably kept many revelers from attending the revival of the traditional New Year`s countdown at State and Randolph Streets. At midnight, only about 300 people were on the streets and sidewalks to welcome the start of 1985.
TEMPERATURES hovered in the mid-30s Monday, and a steady rainfall added to the misery. By Monday night, .33 inch of rain had fallen before the snow began.
Police said traffic moved well Monday afternoon, thanks to the shortened work day on New Year`s Eve, which eliminated the evening rush period.
By later Monday night, however, the weather started to take its toll on drivers. ”We have had quite a few fender-benders, but fortunately no serious accidents,” said Sgt. Harry Hill of the Kane County Sheriff`s Police. ”The problem is that the ice under the snow is making the roads very, very slippery, and the wind and blowing snow are cutting visibility way down.”
At the Du Page County Sheriff`s Police office Monday night, a dispatcher said: ”We have about four inches of snow on the ground right now, and it is snowing to beat the band. Traffic is just creeping with a few people sliding into ditches.”
THE ILLINOIS State Police headquarters in Des Plaines reported 30 accidents on state highways outside of incorporated municipalities by 10 p.m. ”We have had so many accidents that we cannot handle them all,” an officer said.
Dennis Shanks, supervisor at the Federal Aviation Administration air route traffic control center in Aurora, said the closing of O`Hare left 29 aircraft in the air waiting to land. ”An hour later we only had 13 still holding,” Shanks said. ”The others diverted to other airports, many to Cleveland and others to Minneapolis.”
Although Meigs Field, the lakefront airport, remained open, its control tower reported only one aircraft arriving after 6 p.m. until it closed at 10 p.m.
Lester Dickinson, Streets and Sanitation commissioner, said the city had 218 salt trucks on the streets at 11 p.m., most of them working north of the Loop.
TEMPERATURES were expected to nose dive by 3 or 4 a.m. Tuesday, forecasters said. The high Tuesday is expected to be in the 20s, shortly after midnight, with wind from the northwest at 15 to 25 miles an hour.
The overnight low Tuesday was expected to be 10 to 15.
John Travers, of the Central Weather Service, said the northern suburbs can expect 6 to 10 inches of snow by noon on New Year`s Day and the southern suburbs and the Southeast Side near the lake can expect 1 to 4 inches.
Travers said the storm bringing snow to Chicago was centered over southeastern Oklahoma early Monday and over northern Arkansas later in the night. It was expected to be centered of Lafayette, Ind., by 6 a.m. Tuesday.
As the weather system moved north, a flash flood watch was posted for the southern half of Illinois.
When the freezing rain and sleet began to fall, a glaze settled over highways in western Illinois, causing dozens of minor accidents in the Quad Cities.
”BASICALLY WE`RE getting some freezing rain,” said Sgt. William Gage of the state police in East Moline. ”The interstates are pretty well salted. But secondary highways are ice-slick. The salt trucks are out working on them.”
Fog and light rain extended from Springfield to Champaign as temperatures climbed toward the 40s. Visibility in some areas was cut to a quarter-mile or less.
As people head back to work in Chicago Wednesday they will encounter partly sunny skies and temperatures in the teens.
Weather forecasters said that Thursday through Saturday should be mostly sunny with highs of 25 to 35 and lows of 15 to 25.
This season, 3.5 inches of snow has fallen in Chicago. The normal snowfall for December is 9 inches, the Central Weather Service said. It added that the average snowfall for January is 11.1 inches.
THE HIGH last New Year`s Eve was 20 and the low was 6. The high was 24 on New Year`s Day, 1984, and the low was 14.
Chicago wasn`t the only city with miserable weather Monday. Torrential rains and tornadoes killed one person and left 3 others missing and at least 30 injured in Texas, and snow spread from Montana to Michigan.
A turbulent weather system, which dumped 2 feet of snow and caused 2 deaths in the Northwest over the weekend, poured up to 8 inches of rain Monday on eastern Texas, where rivers covered roads and forced some families to flee their homes.
Freezing rains iced highways from Oklahoma to Michigan.
Power outages were a problem for Gilley`s Club, a famed honky-tonk in Pasadena, where a storm ripped off part of the roof. Hundreds of people had made reservations to spend New Year`s Eve there.
BITTER COLD and snow moved across the northern Plains, where Bismarck, N.D., reported 2 new inches by Monday morning. Early afternoon temperatures in parts of North Dakota and Montana were as low as 20 below zero.
Winter storm watches for snow were posted in Michigan, New Hampshire and Maine.
The Southeast continued to bask in unseasonable 70-degree warmth, with high-temperature records broken or tied in a half-dozen cities by
midafternoon. The 71 degrees in Knoxville, Tenn., shattered a 104-year-old mark by one degree.
