Chicago: Season by season, a change in the weather

Growing up in West Africa and then Yorkshire, I became fascinated by the weather. If you have ever seen the towering cumulus clouds off the coast in any tropical country, then you have a front-row theatre seat. They’ve always reminded me of freighters off the coast, waiting to come into port.

In Yorkshire, the clouds seen offshore in the North Sea from my Grammar School in the seaside town of Bridlington, always supplied plenty of dramatic range. I was fascinated by the “Shipping Forecast” and enjoyed mapping out all the weather details on a map of the shipping areas around the UK, transcribing the solemn tones of the radio announcer as if he were conducting a prayer reading. I grew up thinking that one day I might become a meteorologist, but a twist in the narrative took me into advertising and a career that spanned two continents and six cities.

Adopted home

Chicago has now been my home for 28 years, and you quickly learn to live with the weather, rather than against it. By the way… the “Windy City” epithet has nothing to do with the weather, but stems from politicians who earned a reputation for being able to talk the hind legs off a donkey.

Chicago in some shape or form has been around since the 1780s, so only four years after the Declaration of Independence. Jean Baptiste Point du Sable was the first non-indigenous settler. He was a fur trader with a house at the mouth of the Chicago River. Trading has been a massive part of Chicago’s history, with an enormous rail system converging on the city. Chicago is described as “The city of broad shoulders” and “The Hog Butcher to The World”. It has been home to major retailers and mail delivery companies, food companies and breweries. It’s been the home to major Blues, R&B and Jazz artists, and on and on.

Flow change

And here’s another small fact: the Chicago River until 1900 flowed north into Lake Michigan. But to aid commercial river traffic and improve Chicago’s sanitation, the river’s flow was reversed, sending both traffic and effluent down to St. Louis. There are clues to the importance of the river if you look closely. That little “Y” in the photo below is a symbol of the river as it divides between the north and south branches: the southern branch taking everything we can make money from, down to St Louis and eventually to New Orleans.

Living 10 minutes’ walk from the lake makes it easily accessible every day, as is the 18 miles of lake shore bike path that extends north and south of where I live. You are both on the edge of a city but also on the edge of lake-influenced nature.

Chicago is a city of dramatic views – affected by skies and the lake, which can change colour from Emerald Green to Slate Gray and every colour in between, minute by minute. You might describe it as “weather-genic”. Whatever the weather, Chicago always captures the dramatic. The lake is really an inland sea that is 307 miles long and 118 miles wide, and that at times is too large to comprehend as a “lake”.

What I shoot is distinctly influenced by the paintings of Joseph Mallord William (JMW) Turner. I have always admired his sense of drama and can see some of that in the skies over Chicago.

According to Chicagoans, the city has only two seasons: “Winter” and “Construction”. I still think there are four, but Spring is fleeting as can be Autumn, but all produce dramatic skies and landscapes.

Autumn

Autumn arrives when you’re not looking, while taking that last sunset sail, to the “gate” that overlooks the lake, to crisp Autumn walks and then leaves before you know it. The light changes from that summer brightness to the golden glow. It’s also the end of baseball season and dashed hopes for Chicago’s two baseball teams reaching the World Series. “Ah well!” as they say: “there’s always next year.” American Football seasons starts and that means wrapping up warm and tailgating in the parking lot of the Chicago Bears, Soldier Field stadium.

Winter

Winters here are legendary. Temperatures can often get well below -10℃ in winter and then add wind chill to make it feel like -20℃ on the skin. Very low temperatures and the odd “Snowmaggedon”, that once trapped me on a bus for 18 hours until rescued, are things you should expect.

Dressing for winter is a major occupation, particularly when frostbite is a real risk. You also discover that space on the bus seems to shrink, with everyone wearing puffy down coats to keep out the cold. Even the legendary “Bean” gets in on the act, pretending to be a glazed donut. And it’s the blue light season where the lake and sky seem to reflect each other, and you have hours of piercing bright blue light.

Spring

But winter eventually fades, with ice melting reluctantly before the skies and lake change colour. Spring seems to last five minutes in Chicago. One minute the trees are bare; the next minute they’ve turned green and summer starts to rush in with the crack of baseball bats and the smell of grilled hot dogs. And of course, baseball fans dream that this will be the year when they go to the World Series. And all the while, the light changes quickly from blue to the colour of the palest straw.

Summer

There’s much to relish about Summer life here, even if we quickly grumble about high temperatures that can go above +30℃ and deliver high humidity. It’s an outdoor life to be savoured, with bright light, cloudless skies, and sharp shadows, days of play in the lake-front parks; all to be stored as memories until Spring returns.

There’s a lot more to Chicago, from outstanding architecture, to an obsession with great food, to a deep musical culture to enjoy. It’s definitely worth a stopover.

All of these shots, bar one, were taken on a mixture of Leica DL-109, Leica CL with various lenses, and Leica Q2.

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