Dear Tom,
We’ve had a lot of snow this winter. What has been the city’s snowiest winter and biggest snowstorm?
— Alicia Zeman
Dear Alicia,
Chicago’s abundant snowfall this winter has stirred memories of some of the city’s past snowy winters, especially those from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s.
The city’s biggest single snowstorm is the legendary 23 inches on Jan. 26-27, 1967, a storm that brought Chicago to a standstill. The snowiest winter on record occurred in 1978-79, a season that produced 89.7 inches of snow. That winter got off to a rousing start with 7.1 inches in November followed by a December that delivered an additional 31.4 inches.
By Valentine’s Day in 1979, snowfall had reached 84 inches, eclipsing the 82.3-inch seasonal record set the previous winter and sparking talk of a potential 100-inch season. However, the snow spigot turned off, and the rest of the winter brought only an additional 5.7 inches of snow.
———-
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or: asktomwhy@wgntv.com
Weather Report is prepared by the WGN-TV Weather Center, where Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN 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.
IN THE WEB EDITION: For updated weather news, forecasts by ZIP code and local radar images, go to chicagotribune/weather or wgntv.com
