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45 year anniversary of the 1967 Chicago Blizzard


Thundersnow12

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The Grandaddy of them all for this location. YES Jan 78 may have been a stronger storm but the total snowfall here was 25.3".. Per modern records Jan 67 is the record holder for snowfall. Jan 78 is #2.

From GRR..

This day in weather history..

1/25/1967 Temperatures reach the 60s for the second day in a row across Lower Michigan. However, the spring-like weather is about to give way to one of the greatest snowstorms on record.

.......................................................................................

The Weather History for January 26th

1/26/1967 Temperatures in the 20s are some 40 degrees colder than the day before, and heavy snow begins falling, piling up a foot or more along with increasing winds.

.........................................................................................

1/27/1967 Chicago's greatest snowstorm on record also extends into Lower Michigan, where Battle Creek records 28.6 inches of snow. The storm total at Lansing is 23 inches and 18 inches at Grand Rapids.

KBTL..................

1967-01-25 55.0 30.0 0.13 0 0
1967-01-26 30.0 22.0 2.11 21.1 19
1967-01-27 26.0 21.0 0.71 7.5 26

Insane amount of moisture with this thing unlike Jan 78 which the total precip was 1.57 and thus a big fluff storm.

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The forecast for Chicago the day before this storm basically said a 50% chance of rain and snow lol. This would have been a 6-8 part storm thread by this point in this era.

Original forecast that Skilling posted...

chicagoblizzard67.jpg

It started very briefly as rain here when the precip arrived. That thing dropped 2.82" inches total precip here in the form of snow ( basically 10-1 ratios ) and .13 rain and thus total qpf was 2.95". Can you imagine the COBB output maps for something like that if it happened today? :lol: Nobody would probably believe it.. lol

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That pic of O'hare. Was that the entire airport back then? I was only 2, so I can't remember a thing except my dad's recounting and some family photos of my older sister walking up onto the garage roof from the ground thanks to a serious drift. Nothing like it since. The newcomers ('99 and GHD) were dry/cold snowstorms. Nothing like the weight/density of '67. Nothing like it since either. At least not in our neck of the woods.

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The Grandaddy of them all for this location. YES Jan 78 may have been a stronger storm but the total snowfall here was 25.3".. Per modern records Jan 67 is the record holder for snowfall. Jan 78 is #2.

From GRR..

This day in weather history..

1/25/1967 Temperatures reach the 60s for the second day in a row across Lower Michigan. However, the spring-like weather is about to give way to one of the greatest snowstorms on record.

.......................................................................................

The Weather History for January 26th

1/26/1967 Temperatures in the 20s are some 40 degrees colder than the day before, and heavy snow begins falling, piling up a foot or more along with increasing winds.

.........................................................................................

1/27/1967 Chicago's greatest snowstorm on record also extends into Lower Michigan, where Battle Creek records 28.6 inches of snow. The storm total at Lansing is 23 inches and 18 inches at Grand Rapids.

KBTL..................

1967-01-25 55.0 30.0 0.13 0 0
1967-01-26 30.0 22.0 2.11 21.1 19
1967-01-27 26.0 21.0 0.71 7.5 26

Insane amount of moisture with this thing unlike Jan 78 which the total precip was 1.57 and thus a big fluff storm.

Both were epic events. Yes, '67 must've been incredibly heavy ratio snow, but '78 was no fluff storm. Not with those winds. Also, If you check KBTL records, I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least 5 inches on the ground when the Super-bomb started, effectively making it equivalent to a 30+" storm, with horrendous winds, visibilities, and drifts. The snow blew so hard that it broke up on the ground and became more like drifted sand. I remember 10-12 foot drifts on the east side of the state that you could ride a snowmobile right over the top and not sink in. It may have fallen as "fluff", but didn't stay that way. '78 was also a storm for the entire lower peninsula of Michigan (and the UP wrt the winds), so it may actually have trumped '67 impact wise. I know down in Indiana, they had 24-36 hours of whiteout/near zero-vis conditions and couldn't even send plows out of the garages. We have more wooded areas, so it was likely a little less of an issue up here, but still shut everything down for days, if not weeks. I say we do a repeat of both in the next 9 years and do an indepth comparison! :whistle:

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