Thick Winter Coat Covers Midwest

Chicago (dbtechno) - A winter storm that has been causing numerous flight delays hit on full force on Saturday, dropping a load of snow and causing travel to be disrupted. Four hundred and fifty flights were canceled at Chicago’s O’Hara Airport, with hundreds more delayed by late afternoon on Friday, and the promise of resuming flight operations soon looked doubtful.

Flight Delays at the Midway Airport were an average of two hours, and there were twenty cancellations.

Milwaukee’s situation was nearly as critical, with General Mitchell International closed because of snow. The Airport closed for an hour on Friday and then remained closed for about two hours Friday Evening because of the snow.

Wisconsin area airports in Madison suffered from snow closures also. Of three runways at Dane County Regional in Madison, two were shut down due to the snow. At the airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan, snow interfered with ground radar operations, causing one runway to close for about three hours.

Total snowfall in the region was reported at between 5 and 7 inches, with more forecast for Saturday. Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee set a new record for this date, 6.3 inches was reported topping the old record of 5.3 inches that was set in 1968. Madison Airport snowfall was reported at 5.1 inches.

The call went out to fans to help shovel out Lambeau Field in Wisconsin. The Green Bay Packers asked for three hundred people to respond and help shovel out their playing field to get ready for their game against Detroit.

Not everyone was sorry to see the snow. Some people were overjoyed to see the winter snowfall.

Sara Voegeli, Ski Manager at the Villa Olivia County Club was one such person. “It is great, we are loving it. Our business today is wonderful,” said Voegeli. Normally the resort and Ski Area has to generate snow artificially.

By the end of day Friday, nearly three hundred snowboarders, skiers and sledders with inner tubes had turned out to enjoy the snow.