Chicago “Snowzilla” Update: Civil Emergency, Groundhog Day cancelled!

The madness continues in Chicago today, even as the storm begins to pull away and move east. Blizzard warnings remain in effect until 3pm today. Radars show a plume of lake effect snow spraying the city on the storm's back side.

Chicago lakefront battered by wind and snow.

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Some snowfall reports include:

20.6" St. Charles

20.0" Beach Park

20.0" Ottawa

18.5" Elk Grove Village

18.0" Waukegan

17.3" Chicago O'Hare

15.4" Chicago Midway

The storm is now the 5th biggest snowstorm on record in Chicago...with snow still falling.

Chicago

Since snow records began in 1886 in Chicago, there have been 41 winter storms that produced 10 inches or more of snow. A 10 inch snow occurs about once every 3 years. A 15 inch snow occurs only once about every 19 years. The closest back to back 10 inch snows were March 25-26 and April 1-2, 1970 (6 days apart). The longest period of time without a 10 inch snow or greater was February 12, 1981 to January 1, 1999 (almost 18 years). The earliest 10 inch snow was November 25-26, 1895 and the latest 10 inch snow was April 1-2, 1970. The most recent 10 inch snow was January 21-23, 2005. These snowfall statistics are through the 2004-2005 winter season.

Chicago's 10 biggest Snowstorms:

23.0 inches Jan 26-27, 1967

21.6 inches Jan 1-3, 1999

19.2 inches Mar 25-26, 1930

18.8 inches Jan 13-14, 1979

17.3 inches February 1-2, 2011

16.2 inches Mar 7-8, 1931

15.0 inches Dec 17-20, 1929

14.9 inches Jan 30, 1939

14.9 inches Jan 6-7, 1918

14.3 inches Mar 25-26, 1970

14.0 inches Jan 18-20, 1886

High winds tore off part of the roof at Wrigley Field at the storms height. Sound familiar?

You can watch the latest Chicago NWS weather briefing here.

PH

Early Morning Update: (posted 2:35 am February 2nd)

They're calling it "Snowzilla 2011" on WGN Radio in Chicago. If the storm was a rapper, they might call it "Snowtorious B-I-G."

Conditions in and around Chicago are described as "life threatening" by local emergency officials. As many as 95,000 homes are without power early Wednesday morning.

There are reports of people being stranded in their cars for up to 8 hours! "Warming buses" are circling the city to rescue stranded motorists.

Chicago Fire is using snowmobiles to rescue stranded motorists on Lakeshore Drive, which has been closed as snow and high waves from Lake Michigan pound "The Drive." Photographer (and former WGN-TV colleague) Dave Weaver reports as many as a hundred cars may be abandoned on Lakeshore Drive.

Here's the story from my former station WGN-TV.

 

WGN-TV "Skilling Cam" shows a desolate Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. Click the live feed below.

 

Snowfall totals over 16" (and counting) and winds gusting to 67 mph are hammering the city. Storm totals over 20" are forecast by late today.

Here are some of the latest storm reports from Chicago NWS.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHICAGO/ROMEOVILLE IL

140 AM CST WED FEB 02 2011

0135 AM SNOW OAK PARK 41.89N 87.79W

02/02/2011 M16.0 INCH COOK IL AMATEUR RADIO

STORM TOTAL

0132 AM SNOW CHICAGO 41.88N 87.63W

02/02/2011 M16.0 INCH COOK IL AMATEUR RADIO

EVANSTON MAIN AND CHICAGO.

0115 AM SNOW 7 N LA SALLE 41.44N 89.09W

02/02/2011 E13.0 INCH LA SALLE IL EMERGENCY MNGR

E13 TO 15 INCHES OF SNOWFALL. CURRENT WINDS E20S WITH

GUSTS E30S. 4 FEET DRIFTS. LOCATION I80 AND I39 CROSSWAY.

1200 AM HEAVY SNOW OHARE AIRPORT 41.98N 87.90W

02/02/2011 M13.6 INCH COOK IL OFFICIAL NWS OBS

13.6 INCHES TOTAL FOR THE DAY...10.6 INCHES BETWEEN 6 PM

AND MIDNIGHT.

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHICAGO IL

940 PM CST TUE FEB 1 2011 /1040 PM EST TUE FEB 1 2011/

...PEAK WIND GUSTS THROUGH ABOUT 9 PM...

CHICAGO LAKEFRONT 67

CHICAGO OHARE 61

WAUKEGAN HARBOR 61

AURORA 59

ROMEOVILLE 59

CHICAGO MIDWAY 58

PONTIAC 58

BURNS HARBOR 54

WEST CHICAGO 54

LASALLE/PERU 53

WAUKEGAN 53

JOLIET 52

DEKALB 52

Lake County (Chicago's northern suburbs) has issued a civil emergency message closing all roads in the county. I lived in Lake County for several years working as a meteorologist in the Chicago area at WGN-TV & Weather Command, and I do not recall this ever happening before. My former colleague Tom Skilling at WGN has his hands full with this one!

Here's the message as relayed by the Chicago NWS:

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED

CIVIL EMERGENCY MESSAGE

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY FOR LAKE COUNTY ILLINOIS

RELAYED BY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHICAGO IL

201 AM CST WED FEB 2 2011

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS TRANSMITTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY FOR LAKE COUNTY ILLINOIS.

BECAUSE OF LIFE-THREATENING BLIZZARD CONDITIONS...ROADS ACROSS LAKE COUNTY ARE CLOSED TO ALL TRAFFIC. EMERGENCY RESPONDERS ARE HAVING DIFFICULTY REACHING NUMEROUS STRANDED MOTORISTS. DRIVING WILL CONTINUE TO BE NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL HOURS.

IF YOU BECOME STRANDED...EMERGENCY VEHICLES MAY NOT BE ABLE TO REACH YOU.

IF YOU ARE STRANDED...DO NOT LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE. RUN YOUR VEHICLE 10 MINUTES PER HOUR. MAKE SURE YOUR EXHAUST PIPE IS NOT SNOW COVERED...AND CRACK OPEN A DOWNWIND WINDOW FOR VENTILATION.

ALL RESOURCES ARE BEING USED TO REACH STRANDED MOTORISTS. PLEASE DO NOT DRIVE UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. DOING SO WILL PUT YOUR LIFE AT RISK.

This is truly an epic blizzard for Chicago, and this massive "Groundhog Day Snowmageddon" storm will cover hundreds of thousands of square miles and stretch all the way to Boston by day's end.

Groundhog Day cancelled!

On a lighter note, the storm is so intense that they've cancelled some Groundhog Day festivities in Woodstock, IL north of Chicago near the Wisconsin border. "Willie The Groundhog" will stay inside today. Much of the excellent movie Groundhog Day (Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell) was filmed in Woodstock.

[image]

What does it mean when the Groundhog stays inside? I shudder to think of the consequences!

I'll have more updates on MPR News Morning Edition at 7:45am.

PH

***original post 5:30pm Tuesday***

The blizzard has hit Illinois and the Chicagoland area with full force Tuesday. Snowfall is coming down at the rate of 1-2"+ per hour.

Check out some of the storm reports coming in to the Chicagoland NWS office in Romeoville, IL.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHICAGO/ROMEOVILLE IL

418 PM CST TUE FEB 01 2011

..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...

..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....

..REMARKS..

0414 PM HEAVY SNOW 1 S OAK PARK 41.87N 87.79W

02/01/2011 M1.5 INCH COOK IL TRAINED SPOTTER

SNOW FALL PAST HOUR 12 MIN. BLOWING SNOW AND FALLING SNOW REDUCING VISIBILITY TO BETWEEN ONE QUARTER TO ONE EIGHTH OF A MILE.

0338 PM HEAVY SNOW 4 NNE POPLAR GROVE 42.42N 88.79W

02/01/2011 E2.0 INCH BOONE IL TRAINED SPOTTER

2 INCHES OF SNOW IN LAST 2 HOURS. COCORAHS OBSERVER

0345 PM BLIZZARD ESE PAXTON 40.46N 88.10W

02/01/2011 FORD IL TRAINED SPOTTER

EXTREME BLOWING SNOW. HEAVY SNOW. VISIBILITY DOWN TO 100 YARDS OR LESS. BEGAN AS SNOW NOW SLEET OR FREEZING RAIN.

You get the idea. This storm is hitting hard and fast, and it will only get worse through tonight and into Wednesday.

Here's the Tuesday late PM briefing from the Chicago NWS.

You can follow the storm's progress here.

The storm is huge...and will affect as many as 100 million Americans as it marches east.

Potent surface low pressure intensifying overnight.

Warnings for the storm are in effect for at least 20 states.

The storm may produce a 2,000 mile swath of snowfall with totals over 1 foot from Oklahoma to Boston!

PH