At Brancato Snow & Ice Management, we think and write a lot about Chicago weather. So it got me thinking… Why is Chicago called the "Windy City?" Is it because of the gusty Lake Michigan winds that cause the snow drifts we are familiar with snow plowing in the winter? Or is it something else? After doing some digging, it turns out that it might not be based on our Chicago weather at all – in fact, it might be all a bunch of hot air…
Why is Chicago the Windy City? Is it all hot air??
ONE STORY: The most widely known story seems to be that a writer named Charles Dana coined the phrase. Back in the late 1890’s Chicago was competing with New York City for who would host the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (also known as the World’s Fair). In an editorial, Charles Dana, the editor of the New York Sun, advocated against the “nonsensical claims of that windy city" when trying to argue that the fair should be in New York instead of Chicago. He wasn’t referring to the chilly gusts that come off Lake Michigan, but rather condemning the area politicians that he claimed were full of hot air about what the city could handle. It’s reported that New Yorkers were extremely irritated that a "frontier town" might beat them and Dana led the battle against Chicago.
ANOTHER VERSION: While the Charles Dana version of the birth of "Windy City" is generally accepted, a New York resident and word sleuth named Barry Popik has put some time into researching the true origins of the phrase. On several occasions, Popik has discovered Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper headlines from as old as 1876 referring to Chicago as the "Windy City" in a headline. That’s long before Dana’s claim to fame, showing the term was already a widely known moniker by 1889 when Dana wrote his article.
AND ONE MORE: The following "windy city" explanation is from the Freeborn County Standard of Albert Lea, Minnesota, on November 20, 1892:
Chicago has been called the “windy” city, the term being used metaphorically to make out that Chicagoans were braggarts. The city is losing this reputation, for the reason that as people got used to it they found most of her claims to be backed up by facts. As usual, people go to extremes in this thing also, and one can tell a stranger almost anything about Chicago today and feel that he believes it implicitly. But in another sense Chicago is actually earning the title of the “windy” city. It is one of the effects of the tall buildings which engineers and architects apparently did not foresee that the wind is sucked down into the streets. Walk past the Masonic Temple or the Auditorium any day even though it may be perfectly calm elsewhere, and you will meet with a lively breeze at the base of the building that will compel you to put your hand to your hat.
But the Windy City is Cold Too, Right?
If the "windy city" phrase is questionable, what about the notion that Chicago is home to some of the most brutal winters in the country? Are conditions in Illinois as icy and cold as we imagine them to be and is this frozen perception fiction or fact? Most sources point to the latter as the answer.
The Windy City Has Record Making & Record Breaking Temperatures
For those in the area for our most recent seemingly endless arctic blast, Chicago experienced the coldest recorded temperatures over the four-month period between December 2013 to March of 2014 since the recording of these digits began in 1872. And if you think that was just a fluke, on March 1, 2015, the Chicago Tribune reported the temperature at the O’Hare Airport smashed a record of zero degrees set back in 1875.
The National Weather Service said temperatures at O’Hare hit minus 10 degrees over the previous weekend and they stayed below zero until well after sunrise. By noon, the temperature at O’Hare had risen to only 17 degrees and didn’t break out of the teens all day long.
So Chicago may not have been named the Windy City for it’s weather, but it definately fits the bill today. If you would like some help managing Chicago snow and ice this winter to make the weather a bit more bearable, please contact us for affordable commercial snow removal options in the Chicago area.