Dear Tom,
Thanksgiving usually brings a wide variety of weather from cold to unseasonable warmth. I know there was snow on Thanksgiving 1980, but can you explain the synoptic weather setup that day?
— Robert Skurski, Aurora
Dear Robert,
The Chicago area was hit by 3 inches of snow on Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, 1980, the city’s largest snowfall ever recorded on the holiday itself. The heavy, wet snow began in the Chicago area early Thanksgiving morning as intensifying low pressure moved from the western Gulf of Mexico to near Cincinnati. When the snow finally tapered off by early afternoon, 3 to 5 inches of snow had blanketed the Chicago area with the heaviest totals south. Downstate the snow was much heavier with 9 inches in Champaign, 10 inches in Du Quoin and 6 inches around St. Louis, severely hindering holiday travel.
