The Department of Streets and Sanitation has announced the 50 finalists in the contest. Voting is open to Chicago residents through Jan. 31.

From industrious sharks to the bird of the year, here’s what caught our attention this week on the climate and nature beat.

The snow total from Thursday was a mere 1.3 inches at O'Hare (though northwest Indiana and lower Michigan have been hammered with lake effect), but the real danger of this system was always the wind and cold, meteorologists said.

Local leaders are advising people to avoid travel when possible, and to check in on friends, family and neighbors who may need a helping hand. In Chicago’s North Park neighborhood, people are adjusting quickly during a busy holiday season while bearing in mind vulnerable community members. 

More than 1,800 flights have been canceled Thursday across the United States, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware, as severe winter weather complicates holiday travel.

The number of travelers expected to fly – 7.2 million – is just shy of 2019’s 7.3 million. And when you factor in that airlines are operating fewer flights that are more crowded, there’s serious potential for a serious mess for air travelers. How to cope? Here are some strategies.

Blizzard-like conditions are predicted just ahead of Christmas and during Hanukkah. The double whammy caused crowded parking lots and long aisles at grocery stores on Wednesday as folks stocked up.

Unless you live in a year-round warm climate and plan to stay there, it’s important to know how winter storms behave, how to avoid and prepare for them, and heaven forbid, what to do in the worst-case scenario.

Key U.S. airlines have issued travel waivers ahead of what’s forecast to be a brutal “bomb cyclone” of wintry weather in the Midwest and other regions later this week.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. It’s also a time when heart attacks and strokes spike. Research shows heart attacks spike by 30% to 40% in the last two weeks of the year.

A winter weather advisory went into effect Tuesday morning for much of the Chicago region, a far cry from last week's balmy 70-degree temperatures.

The forecast calls for highs in the mid-70s on Thursday, which could approach the date's record high of 75 degrees set in 2020.

A strong system is moving into the area late Friday, bringing with it waves of showers on Saturday morning and wind gusts that could top 50 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.

About 60% of the Midwest and northern Great Plain states are in a drought. Nearly the entire stretch of the Mississippi River — from Minnesota to the river’s mouth in Louisiana — has experienced below average rainfall over the past two months.

Of the three main types of heat-trapping greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — the biggest jump from 2020 to 2021 was in methane, whose concentrations in the air came in with the biggest year-on-year increase since regular measurements began four decades ago, WMO said.

It wasn't exactly a winter wonderland, but the first snowflakes of the season were recorded Monday morning at O'Hare, according to the National Weather Service.