Just looked it up, Chicago had nine inches for the month of February in 2020 and eight inches in 2019.. I was there for Christmas visiting my son and his family in 2017 and there was only a couple of inches on the ground, in fact it melted and the ground was bare, it actually rained if I remember. Now that isn't to say they cannot get some fearsome blizzards, they can, and it can be colder than a witch's tit as my husband used to say who lived there for years.. There is also ice on the lake, but that too varies. My son lives in a Chicago suburb like Michael, when I got there for Christmas there was perhaps three or four inches of snow on the ground, but it was melted and they ground was bare by the time I left just before New Years.
January and February are the coldest months of the year. Snow that lands during them rarely melts up here. Note that that 8 and 9 inches is what fell during that month with January usually having more that won't be melting. Christmas is warmer by comparison a lot of the time. Jim doesn't live by Lake Michigan. He messed that up. It happens. But make no mistake. There's always snow in the yard in Chicago in February. (Let alone the yard of the Winter Lady...)
