CHICAGO �� One of the largest November storms on record dumped as much as 13 inches of snow on the Chicago area Sunday into Monday, delaying morning commuters, canceling more than 1,000 flights at the city's airports, closing hundreds of schools and knocking out power to more than 340,000 homes and businesses.
By itself, the storm _ the only measurable snowfall for the month _also catapulted this month to sixth-snowiest November in Chicago history, behind November 1975's total of 10.8 inches, according to the weather service.
The northwest suburbs, southern Wisconsin and areas south of Rockford along Interstate 39 were hit the hardest.
As the area dug out Monday afternoon, transportation and utilities still were affected by the storms.
�� Traffic on expressways was generally traveling under 20 mph at the height of rush hour, with the Illinois State Police reporting many spin-outs and collisions.
�� Every Metra commuter line reported delays, some up to an hour, mostly for equipment malfunction and signal problems.
�� As of midday, more than 1,000 flights into and out of O'Hare and Midway airports had been canceled in the previous 24 hours, according to the city Aviation Department. At O'Hare, the average delay for flights was about an hour.
��Nearly 153,000 power customers were still without power early Monday afternoon as the heavy, wet snow pulled down trees and lines. Commonwealth Edison said 340,000 homes and businesses had lost power since the storm started around 7 p.m. Sunday.
�� Hundreds of schools called off classes for the day, though the Chicago Public Schools were in session.
At stores in the northwest suburbs, business was slow as most customers stayed home_unless they were taking a break from snow plowing.
"It is definitely slower than usual, for the most part," said Edgar Huerta, assistant manager at Burnt Toast restaurant in Algonquin typically bustling with breakfast patrons in the early morning hours.
At Morkes Chocolates in downtown Huntley, which got about 6 inches of snow, owner Claudia Kendzior chose to open a couple of hours late to keep her employees safe and not make them drive to work during the storm at 4 a.m. "It just wasn't safe," she said.
Snow wasn't as heavy in northwest Indiana as Illinois, but some residents awoke Monday to strong winds that forced some road and school closings and thousands of power outages.
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(Amanda Marrazzo, Susan DeMar Lafferty and Amy Lavalley contributed to this report.)
