Historic Blizzard Prompts Cancellations at O'Hare and Midway Airports

The Chicago-area will get a light dusting of snow, a winter kiss, if you will, on Friday. But the East Coast will get a historic punch in the face as Winter Storm Jonas delivers a crippling blizzard, according to forecasts, with snow as high as 2 feet, bitter cold, widespread power outages and coastal flooding from New York to Washington, D.C.

This will mean a nationwide travel nightmare at the nation’s airports, including O’Hare and Midway in Chicago.

As of Friday morning at 9 a.m., 156 flights at O’Hare are cancelled and 60 flights at Midway. Saturday flights are also cancelled: 75 at O’Hare and 40 at Midway, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.

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The National Weather Service forecasts a nor’easter blowing 60-mph wind gusts and dumping 1.5 to 2-feet of snow over a 36-hour period. Forecasters say the storm is “potentially paralyzing.” About 85 million people — one fourth of the nation — are under some sort of winter storm watch or warning. The storm will begin Friday afternoon, and the affected area stretches from Memphis to the northeast, through Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and New York.

O’Hare and Midway in Chicago, a massive travel hub, likely will experience significant delays and cancellations throughout the weekend.

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A December 2015 winter storm forced the cancellation of 1,600 flights, stranding thousands of people the airports for days. Last year at this time, a similar historic storm on the East Coast also wreaked havoc on flights in and out of Chicago, causing a similar volume of delays and more than 1,400 cancellations.

Keep tabs on the local airports on Patch this weekend with our flight tracker.

Our Local Forecast

• Tonight: A 20 percent chance of snow showers after 5 am. Increasing clouds, with a low around 21. North wind around 5 mph becoming west northwest in the evening.
• Friday: A chance of snow showers, mainly before 9 am, then occasional light snow after noon. High near 29. Northeast wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80 percent. Little or no snow accumulation expected.
• Friday Night: A 20 percent chance of snow showers. Cloudy, then gradually becoming partly cloudy, with a low around 25. Northeast wind 10 to 15 mph.
• Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 33. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light and variable in the afternoon.
• Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 21. Light west southwest wind becoming southwest 5 to 10 mph in the evening.
• Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 39.
• Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 27.

Misery Map

Click the blue button in the lower left corner of the Misery Map to see a visual display over time of flight volume, cancellation volume and the storm path.

NASA’s View of the Storm

A 21-second animation of infrared and visible imagery from NOAA’s GOES-East satellite from Jan. 19 to 21 shows one frontal system moving across the southern U.S. followed by a second storm system that is expected to bring the powerful winter storm to the Mid-Atlantic. The animation was created by NASA/NOAA’s GOES Project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.