Chicago, Illinois, 4.16 pm.

Below is a much more striking wintry scene captured in the Windy City yesterday (but it’s not a true VFYW because the window frame isn’t visible):

Update from a reader:

The view of the ice breaking on the Chicago river also includes the abandoned foundation for the Calatrava Chicago Spire (the circular hole in the ground in the top right of the frame), a building that if it had been built, would have been indubitably the tallest in the Western Hemisphere. Thus, this photo could qualify for a view from your recession because it would have been built but for the financing drying up in the recession.