CHICAGO — As the snow continued to fall, Chicago started digging out from a storm that dumped more snow on the city than officials were expecting.
National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Birk said 5.7 inches fell at O'Hare Airport and 5.8 inches at Midway Airport by midday Thursday and lake-effect snow is expected to continue in some areas until 3 p.m. or 4 p.m., possibly bringing the total snowfall to 7 inches.
But the end of the snowstorm won't mean we're in the clear: Once the flakes stop, the mercury will drop, Birk said.
Wind chills are expected to drop below zero by later Thursday, the weather service said.
During a Thursday morning news conference, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Charles Williams said the city is working to clear as much snow as quickly as possible.
Williams said there are about 320 pieces of equipment out on the streets, including salt spreaders and plows.
Emanuel said the main streets were cleared, and crews were moving to side streets.
"This isn't like the Super Bowl storm that we had," he said, referring to the blizzard that hit the city with 19 inches of snow.
Emanuel encouraged residents to use the city's snowplow tracker, where they can see which trucks are nearby and what streets have been plowed.
Emanuel said the city had been expecting 1-2 inches of snow from Wednesday to Thursday, but lake-effect snow caused the storm to stay longer and grow stronger.
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