Dear Tom,
We are getting a lot of snow this winter, but my grandmother says she remembers a
winter when there was very little snow, less than a foot. Is she correct?
-Ray Cosenbalun, Homer Glen
Dear Ray,
Your grandmother is almost certainly remembering Chicago’s back-to-back nearly
snowless winters of 1920-21 and 1921-22. The winter of 1920-21 was the city’s
least snowy, logging a scant 9.8 inches. The season’s biggest snow was a 2.1-inch
event on Jan. 3031, but despite the meager snowfall, Chicago did manage to eke
out a white Christmas, with one inch on the ground Christmas morning. The
following winter was nearly as snowstarved with only 11.5 inches falling. The two
winters combined produced 21.3 inches of snow—nearly 2 inches less than the
23.0 inches that fell during therecord Jan. 26-27, 1967, storm.
