While Chicago is commonly associated with its freezing winters, this year has brought with it summer weather at an uncharacteristic time. On Feb. 27 temperatures in the city reached the seventies and caused a local ice rink set up as part of a "Winter Wonderland" installation to melt as locals shed clothes and went out to enjoy some unexpected sun.
Forecasts currently expect sixties during the coming weekend while the unusual warmth also brought with it a series of storms in the eastern part of Illinois that have been moving toward the city.
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For these different reasons, a rush of people has been looking to both come into or get out of Chicago. While this route is often within the $200 range on an average weekend, Google Flights (GOOG) currently shows the price of a round-trip ticket between New York's John F. Kennedy Airport and Chicago's O'Hare International Airport between March 1 and 3 as $450 on airlines such as Delta (DAL) and American Airlines (AAL) .
Google Flights
This is how much it will cost you to fly out of Chicago right now
A nonstop flight between O'Hare and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is currently appearing at $887 — while significantly closer, this is higher than the flight to the city from Los Angeles currently within the $550 range.
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A one-way flight between Chicago and Miami on March 2 is currently available for purchase at $250 while a flight to Denver is on the lower range at around $226 on airline like United (UAL) .
While low-cost carriers such as Spirit Airlines (SAVE) and Frontier (FRON) have built a business model by offering ultra-low prices, a last-minute ticket on the same routes is currently showing the same prices as on the country's three main airlines.
Jessica Blaska-Grady, who managed a golf course in the Chicago area, said that she has seen a rush of tourists both from the area and farther-away destinations come down to take advantage of the warm weather.
Weather significantly influencing travel patterns, reports show
"It's definitely kind of crazy," she told a local branch of Fox News. "This is incredibly unusual but I'm not going to lie and say it's unwelcome. It's a nice little boost. You've got to make hay when the sun shines."
With climate change continuing to alter predictable weather patterns in cities across the world, those who research travel patterns have also been observing a change in the types of places people visit as well as the times when popular destinations get more crowded.
Over in Europe, places such as Greece and Southern Spain are increasingly becoming too hot for many visitors in the summer months. A report from travel agency Intrepid Travel found a spike in tourist interest in traditionally cooler countries such as Belgium, Slovenia and Poland during the summer months while destinations that were formerly too cold to visit are seeing greater numbers of visitors.
At the same time, major cities such as Paris and London, which have traditionally seen the biggest crowds of tourists during the summer months, are getting more popular during the spring and fall months.
