Thursday marks the 20th consecutive day here without measurable snow-the longest early and mid-December snow-free period in 13 years. Only ten times since official snow records began here in 1885 have comparable December periods failed to see at least 0.1” of snow. The current 2006-07 snow season’s 6.5” tally at O’Hare—much of it from the Dec. 1 storm—is half the 12” which had fallen by this date a year ago.
Denver and the west central Plains sit at the other end of the snow spectrum Thursday. The nearly 30” down in parts of the Denver metro area by late Wednesday evening had been whipped into 6 foot drifts by whiteout-generating 40-50 m.p.h. gusts—and another foot of snow was predicted. Accumulations threatened to reach 40” in parts of the city-more snow than typically falls in an entire season here.
--By Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist
