Dear Tom,
What’s the greatest number of consecutive days with measurable snowfall in Chicago?
Paul Sarewich, Chicago
Dear Paul,
Chicago has experienced at least five consecutive days with measurable snow (0.1″ or more) on 46 occasions in 122 years of snow records, or about once every two or three years.
The greatest of them, and the answer to your question, was a string of nine consecutive snowy days, Jan. 29-Feb. 6 in 1902. Several intervals of light snow characterized the period–snow was not falling much of the time–and only 5.0 inches came down during the entire nine days.
The snow presented no problems in the city. However, Chicago’s second-longest string of snowy days, eight days, Dec. 13-20, 1973, resulted in considerable metropolitan disruption. Snowfall totaled nearly 21″ in that period; here are the daily totals: 1.4″, 0.3″, 3.1″, 4.3″, 2.0″, 1.0″, 8.3″, 0.5″.
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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.
