Looking at the Four Worst Winters in Chicago History
The first few frosts of the 2024-25 fall/winter season are upon us in eastern Iowa and the Tri-States as a whole. That signals not only that cooler weather will be here very soon, but the fact that winter will rear its ugly head in just a matter of months.
As a result, I wanted to go back and examine some of the coldest winters on record; in particular, I wanted to look at the most treacherous examples from the state of Illinois. The Midwest as a whole gets mollywhopped with cold and snow every year, but having lived in the Chicagoland area for most of my life, the lake effect is real and it compounds conditions to the point where an average snow can be made that much colder and worse.
The 2013-14 Winter Season:
The most recent brutal winter in Chicago was certainly memorable, for it was the first time many of us heard the term "polar vortex." On top of 67.4 inches of snow, making it the third-highest snowfall for the area in meteorological history, the season was also underscored by life-threatening cold.
It was the third coldest winter in Chicago history, with an average temperature of 18.8 degrees. 26 days in the season were temps at zero or below, breaking an over-100-year-old record. Lake Michigan was also 90 percent frozen over, which had only happened at least two other times in recorded history.
I remember this winter very well. Save for more snow days than usual at my high school, it was an abjectly brutal winter where going outside, even to get the mail, was atypically painful.
The 1978-79 Winter Season:
Every winter like clockwork, my dad recalls the many brutal winters of the 1970s. The 1978-79 season was highlighted by an extremely difficult month of January, where a snowstorm that struck Chicago on January 13th, 1979 became remembered as the storm that cost Mayor Michael Bilandic his bid for re-election after the City of Chicago bungled its snow-clearing efforts, per CBS News.
Prior to that storm, anywhere from seven to 10 inches of snow were already on the ground from a previous blizzard on New Year's Eve. The January 13th-14th storm brought an additional 18.8 inches on the ground, and much of the snowpack remained on the streets and train-tracks for months due to the impossibility of it being moved, hence the controversy surrounding Mayor Bilandic.
The 1977-1978 Winter Season:
The year prior in Chicago was no picnic either. A total of 82.3 inches of snow fell for the season, ranking second in the city's history. There were also a record 43 days below freezing from the end of December to the early-part of February. Talk about an ungodly way to start a new year.
As CBS News notes, consider the fact that, back in the 1970s, many vehicles were not equipped to handle the harshness of extreme cold. For one, vehicles' reliance on carburetors, which prove faulty in frigid temps, led to many of them stalling and not starting due to the cold temps. Now, most cars are equipped to handle Siberian temperatures, even if most benefit from about 10-20 minutes of idling prior to driving.
The 1966-67 Winter Season:
The 1966-67 winter season is remembered for one cornerstone event in the history of Chicago: The Blizzard of 1967. Walk into any South Side gin-mill filled with glass-clutching old-timers and they'll probably tell you a personal story from their youth.
The blizzard began early on January 26th, dumping about two inches of snow per hour on the city. Combined with gusty winds of about 53 mph, it made travel of any kind impossible. Snow drifted as high as six feet in some areas, and by the time it ended, 23 inches of snow were on the ground.
Hotels, hospitals, and fire stations were crowded with people who couldn't get home. Cars, trucks, and even buses were literally left abandoned on interstates all around the city. Sixty deaths were attributed to the storm, most of them heart attacks caused by shoveling snow, per CBS News. A total of 273 looters were arrested.
As of 2024, it remains the greatest snowfall in a single storm in Chicago history.
Read more about some of the most treacherous winters in Chicago history on CBS News' website.
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Gallery Credit: KATELYN LEBOFF