Dear Tom,
What is the least amount of snow that Chicago has received during a winter?
Steve Poblocki, Orland Park, Ill.
Dear Steve,
Snowfall in a typical Chicago winter averages around 40″, but there has been a tremendous variance in snowfall extremes since the city began keeping snowfall statistics during the winter of 1884-85. The city’s snowiest winter was in 1978-79 when 89.7″ of snow fell, but getting back to your question the winter with the least snow occurred in 1920-21 when only a meager 9.8″ fell. Even though that season got off to an early start with 0.2″ of snow in October, the winter was a bust in terms of snowfall. December was the snowiest month with 4.4″ followed by January with 3.2″. Late winter from February on was almost snow-free with only 0.7″ logged.
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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.
