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It's Officially Cold Again In Chicago: The CTA Heat Lamps Are Now On

By Stephen Gossett in News on Nov 1, 2017 6:22PM

Today is chockablock with signifiers that, as a certain prestige TV show once said, winter is coming. Christkindlmarket started setting up in Daley Plaza, for instance, and the city proclaimed that it has chosen its latest 60-plus-foot spruce centerpiece for the holidays. But for transit-oriented Chicagoans, Nov. 1 marks the return of the colder season for a very specific reason: yep, it's the full return of the CTA's heat lamps.

As in years past, CTA started activating the eminently crowd-around-able infrared heat lamps that dot platforms at aboveground 'L' stations about two weeks "to ensure they are all in working order," CTA spokesperson Irene Ferradaz told Chicagoist. All the lamps are fully operational as of today, she said.

The CTA usually shuts them down on March 31, but not always. They were thankfully still rolling during the unexpected cold snap that hit the city in early April, 2016, you might recall.

The heat is on at just the right time, too. After a mild October, temperatures have taken a plunge lately, with lows anticipated to hit 41 degrees this week. And long-term models show a chance for colder-than-average temperatures to hit later in the season.

Be sure to layer up nonetheless since the lamps can only do so much.