Winter chaos in the US – record amount of snow in Chicago

TT

Published 2025-11-30 22.38

 

A person tries to make his way through the snow chaos in Chicago on Saturday. Photo: Kiichiro Sato/AP/TT

Snow is falling across parts of the northern US. The worst affected is Chicago, which has received a record amount of snow for the month and thousands of air travelers are stranded.

Large amounts of snow are falling across a belt from South Dakota to New York, causing both traffic accidents and many canceled flights.

During the intensive Thanksgiving travel weekend, nearly 5,000 flights were delayed or canceled on Saturday, according to NBC News. The figure for Sunday looks to be only marginally better.

The worst affected was Chicago's major airport O'Hare, where over 1,000 flights were canceled on Saturday alone.

The region has been hit by record snowfall. Chicago received more than 8.5 inches of snow on Saturday, and according to the National Weather Service, the city has never seen so much snow on a single day in November. It wasn’t just the air traffic that was affected; the Chicago Sun-Times reported 500 car accidents in Chicago in a single day.

The weather has also had its effect elsewhere. In Indiana, police are reporting a pileup involving 45 cars, but no serious injuries. And in Des Moines, Iowa, a passenger plane skidded off the runway due to icy conditions. There were no serious injuries reported there either.