vortex

Could be a nice little event here and for Hoosier.

From Mike Caplan. 
 

Today marks the midpoint of one of Chicago’s worst blizzards on record. January 12-14 1979 saw a crippling 20.3” of snow fall, causing death, disruption to commerce for weeks, and the downfall of a mayor.  

The winter of 1978-79 still stands as the benchmark against which all others in Chicago are measured.  A whopping 89.7” of snow fell that season, 40.4” of that came down in January.  But it was the weekend of January 12-14 that created the most havoc. 

It started innocuously enough.  The forecast called for 2-4” of snow. But Mother Nature had different plans. It kept snowing. And snowing.  And snowing. And with winds whipping to around 40mph, mountainous drifts formed, stranding motorists and leaving the city scrambling to clean up the mess.  

Five people died. O’Hare was closed for four days.  Most roads and parking lots were out of commission for more than a week. Compounding the problem was the fact that two weeks prior a 9”-12” snowstorm had already blanketed the area.  

Not a bad look for most in the sub if this were to come to fruition.   
Also good prognostic discussion.  

50 minutes ago, RCNYILWX said:

Maybe there's something to that with these blocky stagnant patterns seemingly getting more frequent? But on the other hand could recency bias be at play? I only ask because my time out here is 10.5 years now and at least for me, these relatively lengthy dull stretches don't seem that much out of place. 

 

 

The legendary winter of 13-14 was very much out of the norm. Even the 2010-11 winter, my first out here, had a decent December, followed by a pretty quiet January until GHD I and then February really wasn't all that great out here after GHD I. I've wondered if the 2007-08 through 2010-11 winters and then 13-14 and to a lesser extent 14-15 coming not too long after that stretch helped drive the perception of how a winter should be because that's when these forums became popular. I've heard it mentioned many times here that the 90s overall weren't great and neither were the 80s.

 

The 2000s were pretty spotty too until the aforementioned stretch kicked off by 07-08. You had epic months like December 01 followed by long doldrums. You had good months like January 05 and February 07 following very long mild stretches and outright bad winters like 01-02 and 03-04 and much of 05-06. Don't get me wrong, I became passionate about the weather because of east coast snowstorms and badly want us to have a major region wide event this winter. But I really think our climo owes to having at least one or two lengthy disappointing stretches a winter even in solid winters.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m thinking you meant December of 2000? December 01 stunk snow wise.   

Overall I agree with your statement.  I remember plenty of boring stretches of winter weather, especially 90s and early 2000s.  

It wasn’t the heaviest rates but the duration of accumulating snow was 54 hours at Chicago.  

I remember the snow was behind schedule because of the slow movement, so like a true weenie with no patience, I drove about 30 miles south so I could see it snow.   Hahaha.  

39 minutes ago, Chicago WX said:

Nice pic. Was just out in the back listening to the trees crack in the wind. Not comforting. 

Haha.  No it isn’t.

I do hear a little dripping from the ice. Very slow melt.  Quite a bit to go though. 

7 minutes ago, Chicago WX said:

Finally made it to 32˚ here at my house, a couple of hours ago...and been that way since. No melting. Of course, just read LOT's AFD and they said all the ice melted south of I-80. 

Just took this shot of the gf's car. Totally encased. 

 

Read that too.  Definitely not even close to melting.   

Just took this pic. 

Wind gusts to 30 mph tomorrow with the ice too won’t help matters.  

All finished here.  Guessing around 1.5”. I’ll take it all things considered.  
Correction, right at 2”   
 

Josh pic   

6 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

Looked out the window a while ago and there was nothing.  Looked again 5 minutes later and it was snowing steadily.

Looks like a good band heading up your way. 
Edge of it went through here and it was S+ for lil bit.  

An inch here already.  

Nice band of heavy snow heading toward Chicago metro between 55 and 57

Started snowing here in Kankakee about 20 minutes ago.  Moderate snow now.  
 

2 minutes ago, Chambana said:

Enjoy your storm guys. Maybe central Illinois and central Indiana will get our storm in January. It’s really hard not to get discouraged sometimes. We definitely deserve one. Should be a good 2-3” soaker for us though. That’s fun?

That sucks but I can relate. At this point, I’ll take an inch of snow and root for the fellas up north. 

Nothing worse than being in the Chicago media market watching coverage of a snowstorm 50 miles northwest of you. Unfortunately, you get used to it after awhile.  
 
 

14 minutes ago, cyclone77 said:

This morning's Euro snowfall forecast through the end of the year nearly perfectly illustrates mostly what we've seen so far this season.  Illinois dead zone.  Definitely a very frustrating start to the season to be sure.  

 

Brutal.   

1 hour ago, Hoosier said:

Yeah, the hype machine was in full effect.  I remember TWC even broke out "heavy snow" on their outlook maps a few days in advance, which was something rarely seen.

Definitely. Even Jerry Taft was somewhat onboard.  Lol.  
The weird thing I remember the day before the storm, was the crazy amount of Geese flying south all day.   Never seen anything like that to this day.   Even they knew it was coming.  
 

49 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

With ORD still stuck on 0.7" due to the clipper fail this morning that RC alluded to and prospects diminishing for much in the way of measurable snow in time for Christmas, now it's really starting to get "fun" in terms of futility for Chicago.  

First image is least snow through Christmas day and the second image is least snow through Dec 31.  We'll see if we can get something before the 31st to get off of that list.

Again, ignore 1996.

 

This year’s .7 is the exact same amount as 1998.   Be nice for a 1999 redo. 
I remember the 99 blizzard was forecast for a week ahead.  

11 minutes ago, Malacka11 said:

Seriously, when did we go from being weenies to being meanies?

Covid. 

Me and 3 coworkers all tested positive for the antibodies (we all caught COVID a month ago). We donated blood to The Red Cross last Friday and they automatically test for the antibodies.  
Took a week for test results to come back. 
So now we signed up to donate our plasma in 50 days.  Make a few bucks doing it too.  

55 MPH gust at IKK last hour, impressive.  
At least whatever leaves I had left in the yard are gone.    

3 hours ago, madwx said:

Rapper Jeremih is in the ICU on a ventilator with COVID.  He's 33 with no known preexisting conditions.

Unfortunate but it happens. 
Like I said earlier, I was “fortunate” my symptoms were mild, as were my 9 other coworkers who contracted it.   3 of them were over 50 with preexisting conditions but still had mild symptoms.   All of us have pretty much fully recovered, thank goodness.  
 

14 hours ago, Hoosier said:

You are giving ammo to the anti-maskers 

But maybe it helped you and your coworkers take in a lower viral dose vs not wearing one.

Glad you are on the mend.

Lol.  Just stating the facts.  Haha. 

I’m guessing it did because we’ve all pretty much have fully recovered.  All had mild symptoms.

Thanks   

Everyone was wearing masks that I’m aware of. 
I definitely was.  

I tested positive for Covid last Friday after becoming symptomatic on Wednesday.  I was exposed at work by a stupid coworker who came to work sick last Monday.  He tested positive Wednesday, then 3 other coworkers did. 

I started  with a slight cough for 2 days, then lightheaded, chills and low grade fever for a few days.  All have since resolved themselves besides some fatigue.  The other workers who caught it all had similar symptoms. 
I’m in my mid 40s and in good shape/health.  To be honest, it wasn’t that bad at all. Pretty lucky.