Dear Tom,
What is Chicago’s snowiest decade? Did the “Blizzard of ’67” start off the snowiest decade? I know that the 10-year annual average in the 70’s was something like 50″ of snow and now it’s around 30″.
Paul Grisdale
Dear Paul,
The storm to which you refer buried Chicago under 23 inches of snow on Jan. 26-27, 1967, the greatest snowstorm in the city’s weather history. That winter’s total snowfall was 68″, well above the city’s average of 38″ but still far below the record of 89.7″ in the cold, snowy winter of 1978-79.
A search of Chicago’s snowfall records (1884-2003) for the city’s snowiest ten consecutive years reveals that the 10-year average snowfall in the 1960s was about 45″, but Chicago’s snowiest 10-year period ever was the ten winters from 1969-70 through 1978-79, which averaged 57″. The 10-year average now is at 35″.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or asktomwhy@wgntv.com (Mail volume precludes personal response.)
