Dear Tom,
Does it snow every April in Chicago?
Ray Macek
Dear Ray,
With the help of climatologist Frank Wachowski, we scoured the city snow records for the 120 Aprils of record since 1885 and found that only 12 out of those 120 Aprils (10 percent) were completely snowless (not even a trace). Surprisingly, three of those 12 snowless Aprils have occurred recently: in 1998, 1999 and just last year in 2004.
In a typical April the city can expect about 1.5 inches of snow, but some Aprils have produced some truly major snowstorms. The city’s snowiest April was back in 1938 when 13.6 inches of snow fell, nearly all of it in two storms: 9.0 inches on April 6 and 4.5 inches on April 8. Two other notable April snowstorms to clobber the Chicago area were on April 2-3, 1975, when 9.8 inches fell, and on April 1-2, 1970, when 10.7 inches whitened the city.
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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.)
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
