Dear Tom,
What day of the year is Chicago’s snowiest day?
— Fran Kosey, Chicago
Dear Fran,
We can offer two answers to your question.
For starters, consider this: A total of 3,063.0 inches of snow has been measured at Midway Airport from 1929 through 2007. That works out to an average of 38.8 inches per year. Measurable snow has occurred there as early as Oct. 12 (0.3 inch in 2006) and as late as May 11 (0.2 inch in 1966). Jan. 13 stands as Chicago’s snowiest day, with a total accumulation of 54.6 inches in the 79 years of Midway snow data. Jan. 26 ranks second with 51.5 inches.
The snowiest single day, midnight to midnight, in Chicago snow history is Jan. 2, 1999, when 17.6 inches buried the city. That day was part of a Jan. 1-3 storm that delivered 20.6 inches.
———-
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 11:30 a.m., 5:30 p.m. 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.com/weather or wgntv.com
