![]() ![]() And that you had to dress as warm as possible. “You always knew that when January and February came around, it’d be freezing cold,” she said. Naperville City Councilwoman and Naperville native Jennifer Bruzan Taylor said she’d look forward to the simple assurance of knowing how to dress. While local preserve and park districts brace for whatever weather comes, some longtime residents miss how predictable winter used to seem. “We take what the winter hands us,” Schirott said. Regardless of weather, district trails are open year-round, though cross country skiers - equipped with their own gear - can take advantage of snow-covered paths, if conditions allow. From 2019 to date, annual openings have toggled between eight at most to three at the lowest. The most days it was open in a single year was 16 in the 2017-18 season, district data shows. Hoy has sporadically offered tubing from year to year. When the tubing hill is open, the district also rents snowshoes from the base. Hoy in Warrenville, three days out of a possible 37 this past season, according to district spokeswoman Beth Schirott. The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County opened its tubing hill, Mt. Riley Howard, 17, left, Morgan Maher, 18, center, and Michelle Jurec, 18, right, enjoy the winter conditions. 12, kids took to the sledding hill at Rotary Park. ![]() People were golfing in February.” While adults were digging out from the snow that moved through Naperville overnight Jan. “If we don’t have a typical winter, we have 138 parks and more than 70 playgrounds. “We just need to be flexible during warmer weather,” Luthman said. Still, as a district, staff “prepare for anything,” she assured, so it can cater to conditions at hand. She pointed to the stretch of bitter cold in mid-January as really the only period the district could sustain its rinks through the winter. “That’s been challenging the last couple of years,” Luthman said. But they only open after enough consistently cold temperatures. The park district manages four outdoor rinks from about Dec. ![]() 12 to sled down Rotary Park hill in Naperville after a winter storm left a few inches of snow. Sam Hayes, 14 Calum Baham, 15 Julian Thomas, 15 Blake Highhantes, 15 and Jack Libeo, 14, pile onto each other Jan. While she didn’t say how often that was, Luthman did note that ice skating was a rarer option. District spokeswoman Sameera Luthman said that for the 2023-24 winter season, whenever weather permitted, sledding was offered. To open, hills need at least two or more inches of visible snow. And if it does snow, it doesn’t stay cold enough to be there long.”ĭuring winter months, Naperville Park District maintains eight sledding hills, including Rotary. “But now,” she said, “it’s down to grass. Rubber ice, she’d call it.Īs she got older, Wehrli used to love watching generations of families go down the snow over on Rotary Hill, Naperville’s premiere spot for sledding, she said. Sometimes, she’d look for where the river’s icy cover was just thin enough for her to crack and bounce along. She remembered searching for the “smoothest, slickest” part of the DuPage River when it froze over to glide on. “There was always a good reason to be outside,” she said. Zachary Yack, also a meteorologist with the weather service in Romeoville, added that “with climate change, it’s hard to discern how it contributes to one individual winter or one individual record.”įor Wehrli, though, there’s an undeniable change in winters today from winters when she was little. … So I think the jury is still out on what will become the norm going forward.” “Climate change has been causing bigger extremes, with swings in temperature from warm to cold. “In the broader picture, with climate change, I would say it’s unclear,” said Brett Borchardt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville. Long-term, however, what can be expected out of winters ahead is something scientists are still trying to figure out. For the Chicago area, this has meant a milder and drier past few months overall. Unseasonably warm temperatures as of late have also been amplified by a natural climate phenomenon known as El Niño, a warming of the central Pacific that changes global weather patterns. Globally, last winter set new temperatures highs, per the European Union climate agency Copernicus. winters in the lower 48 states are now averaging 2.2 degrees warmer than in 1980, according to an analysis of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data by The Associated Press. Ice harvesting was a common in Naperville and throughout the Midwest because the blocks could be stored in icehouses in winter for use through the rest of the year. Naper Settlement/HANDOUTMen move blocks of ice harvested from a Naperville quarry into horse-drawn wagons using a ramp in this undated photo from the 1800s. Monday, March 18th 2024 Home Page Close Menu
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