The week's blizzard officially measured at O'Hare contributed 20.2 inches to the overall total of 47.5 inches of snow this winter season. That leaves only 2.5 inches needed to break the record, roughly what the National Weather Service is predicting for the area.
The snow totals for the seasons leading up to the 2010-2011:
* 2007-2008: 60.3 inches
* 2008-2009: 52.7 inches
* 2009-2010: 54.2 inches
That sounds like a lot but there's is still a way to go to exceed Chicago's record for greatest accumulated snowfall. The figure was 89.7 inches during the 1978-1979 season.
That's only for the 100 or so years with reliable records, of course. There was probably a really monster snow accumulation in northern Illinois somewhere along 1805-15. That's when, according to the native Indians, the snow was so deep buffalo all starved to death because they couldn't reach forage. The story seemed to fit pretty well with the huge piles of bones settlers found scattered across the northern Illinois plains.
These days the average snow fall from autumn through spring is 38.0 inches. Not counting the last 10 years, of course.
In the pic: NWS radar at 7 am this morning.
2 comments:
What was the result of the groundhog predicting an early Spring (or not)?
Hooray? Are you kidding FEN? This is great if you're living in Alaska, or you're a youngster who doesn't have to remove this stuff!
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