Dear Tom,
My dad says that it used to snow a lot more when he was a kid. Where’s the snow?
Sara Kupper Wilmette, Ill.
Dear Sara,
Your dad probably grew up somewhere in the period from the late 1960s through the early 1980s, an era that produced many of Chicago’s snowiest winters. The two snowiest occurred back-to-back in the late 1970s. During the winter of 1977-78, seasonal snowfall here totaled 82.3″, breaking the 80″ barrier for the first time. Chicagoans were stunned when that record toppled the very next season when the winter of 1978-79 brought a whopping 89.7″ of snow. Snowfall totals have definitely been anemic here recently with amounts far below the city’s current normal of around 40″. Four of the last five winters have failed to produce even 30″ of snow, and it has been nearly a decade since a robust 50.9″ fell during the winter of 1998-99.
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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.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
