There's a wintry scene outside your window. But under all that snow, less than a foot underground, are millions of cicadas that are doing the same thing most of us are: Looking forward to warmer days ahead.
Katie Dana, a researcher at the Illinois Natural History Survey, says last year was a very loud year for cicadas in the Chicago area.
This year, not so much probably because it's not their year.
"But there could be a few stragglers, and it's kind of nice because then you can really pick out their calls," Dana said.
Dana says this will be a noisy cicada year for people significantly south of here, on the far eastern border of Illinois.
As for Chicagoans, they'll have to wait a few years.
"2024 is going to be a big year. Because both in northern Illinois and in southern Illinois, we're going to have cicadas emerging all over the place," Dana said.
