According to a federal report released Monday, the U.S. experienced 20 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in 2021, including hurricanes, wildfires and out-of-season December tornadoes.

Melting glaciers, deadly floods in Germany, record high summer temperatures in generally mild Oregon, more urgent pleas for help from Pacific island nations. With growing urgency, the effects of climate change were felt around the world in 2021.

The National Weather Service on Tuesday said that as of 12:10 p.m., one-tenth of an inch of snow had been recorded at O’Hare Airport — Chicago’s official weather site — making the first measurable snowfall in 287 days.

The National Weather Service is forecasting a "burst of wet snow" on Tuesday and a chance of light snow on Wednesday, which could bring Chicago's snow-free streak to an end.

At least 45 tornadoes have been preliminarily confirmed in the Dec. 15 storms that crossed the Great Plains and Midwest amid unseasonably warm temperatures.

Chicago has never gone this late in the year without a measurable snowfall, and there's no sign of the white stuff in sight.

Wednesday saw record high temperatures across the region, wind gusts above 60 miles per hour and even the smell of smoke, which rode in on winds all the way from brush fires in Kansas.

A 50-year record could fall Wednesday as the temperature in Chicago is expected to reach the mid- to upper-60s, according to the National Weather Service. The warmest Dec. 15 to date was 64 degrees in 1971.

As searches continued for those still missing, efforts also turned to repairing the power grid, sheltering those whose homes were destroyed and delivering drinking water and other supplies.

OSHA inspectors, who have been at the site since Saturday, will look into whether workplace safety rules were followed and will have six months to complete the investigation, said spokesperson Scott Allen.

The company has not said how many people were in the building not far from St. Louis when the tornado hit at 8:35 p.m. Friday — part of a swarm of twisters across the Midwest and the South that leveled entire communities. Authorities said they didn’t have a full count of employees because it was during a shift change and there were several part-time employees.

Rescuers in an increasingly bleak search picked through the tornado-splintered ruins of homes and businesses Sunday, including a candle factory that was bustling with night-shift employees when it was flattened, as Kentucky’s governor warned the state’s death toll from the outbreak could top 100.

Tornadoes and severe weather caused catastrophic damage across multiple states late Friday, killing at least six people overnight as a storm system tore through a candle factory in Kentucky, an Amazon facility in Illinois and a nursing home in Arkansas. The Kentucky governor said he feared dozens more could be dead.

A strong storm system is moving into the Chicago region, bringing an “out-of-season” threat of thunderstorms and even tornadoes, with the worst expected to hit after 9 p.m. Friday, the National Weather Service said.

It’s been 268 days, and counting, since Chicago recorded its last measurable snow. The record of 290 days is within reach.

Every year, the start of the snow route ban catches hundreds of drivers unaware, forcing them to travel to the city’s auto pound — and pay at least $235 — to retrieve their cars, officials said.