I have been trying to come up with a practical measure of the length of Chicago winters.  Here are a few.

  • On Oct 4 I swapped out my summer clothes for winter clothes.  Tomorrow I will take the summer clothes back out of storage.  7 months of winter.
  • On Nov 10 I wore my heavy winter coat for the first time.  I downgraded to my wool coat for the first time on March 27.  4.5 months of deep winter.
  • Sep 9 was the first day I did not wear flipflops. I wore them for the first time last week. 4.5 months of non-winter.