(Credit: CBS)
Updated 12/30/2010 at 3:30 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) – Foggy conditions Thursday made for big problems at O’Hare and Midway international airports.
The fog has prompted officials to cancel 200 flights at O’Hare and 80 at Midway, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
The Federal Aviation Administration is also reporting delays of 30 minutes at O’Hare.
Temperatures began to climb into the 40s Thursday morning, as warmer, moist air moved in and the stale snow on the ground began to melt.
These conditions made for a thick soup of fog in many areas, prompting a dense fog advisory from 10 a.m. Thursday to 7 a.m. Friday for Lake, McHenry, Kane, DeKalb counties, as well as several other counties in northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and Iowa.
Also foggy were the futures of weather-weary passengers still trying to get back home, CBS 2’s Vince Gerasole reports.
“We took the L for 45 minutes, got to the airport, and only to find out all of the flights out of Chicago to Cedar Rapids had been canceled,” said Liz Swanton of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who now planned to take a bus back home.
The Anderson family has been trying to leave New York City for their home in Wyoming since Sunday. Airline cancellations caused them to spend the night in a Chicago hotel at their own expense.
Among the happy stories at O’Hare was that of Audrey Griffen, who made it in from the East Coast.
“Just to be in the airport and have our bags – that was a good feeling,” she said.
As New Year’s approaches, you can pretend it’s April Fool’s Day instead. CBS 2’s Megan Glaros says the high temperature for Thursday will peak at 42 degrees, and the high for Friday at a balmy 54 degrees. But after that, the wintry 20s return.
