Steph, our woman in the West Loop, reports from downtown: Last night as I came off the Quincy el, I was puzzled to see a few big chunks of spattered snow in the middle of West Adams Street. It was like someone had a snowball fight with only seven large snowballs for ammo, even though there was hardly any snow on the ground with the “warm” temperatures we’ve been having lately.

Then I heard tiny clinks of ice hitting the pavement and as I surveyed the road, saw balls of ice and drifts of snow falling and hitting the road. I looked up at the Sears Tower to see white powder tumbling off the building in random directions. I had seen signs outside buildings downtown warning people of falling ice, but I hadn’t seen falling ice yet. And there weren’t any signs here warning of ice falling from 1,454 feet.

This morning as I walked to the Quincy el, snow and ice were still falling onto West Adams Street. Other people walking to work looked up at the Sears Tower and back at the road, confused, and a bit nervous, because getting hit on the head by ice from that far up could at least give a person a concussion, right?