Dear Tom,
I recently heard someone say that Champaign got only rain while Chicago was buried under 23 inches of snow during the January 1967 blizzard. But I was living there at the time and remember a terrible ice storm. Wasn’t that part of the same weather system?
Steve Grierson, Chicago
Dear Steve,
It was the same storm, and the Champaign area did get rain, more than 2.5 inches. However, most of it was freezing rain, and, as you correctly remember, the entire region was paralyzed by a massive ice storm. Glaze accumulated to a record 1.7-inch thickness on trees and power lines, knocking out electricity and communications and damaging tens of thousands of trees.
The 1,335-foot tower of TV station WICD toppled under the weight of the ice, along with the towers of five other radio and TV stations. At least 25 people died because of that Downstate ice storm and damage totaled more than $18 million.
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