By any measure, the winters of the mid and late 1970s were brutal. Bitter arctic outbreaks descended on the area with a frequency rarely seen here. My colleague Richard Koeneman has done extensive analyses of the winters of the 1970 and has concluded the winters of NO other decade in the 139-year term of Chicago weather observations (dating back to 1871) comes close to the overall severity of the winter of the 1970s -- especially through the middle and end of the decade.
These amazing photos taken during that period and just sent to us by Rick Johnson of Antioch (along with the captions below) illustrate the incredible harshness of those incredibly harsh winters. THANKS so much Rick for sharing these with us! Talk about bringing back memories... These photos are stunning!
--Tom Skilling
January 1977: Right in the middle of 43 days below freezing. The corner of Deep Lake Road And Silver Lake Road in Antioch, Ill. That street post sign is 8 feet high! That snow was drifted right across the entire road. They had to dig out the intersection with a front end loader.
January 1979: The street in front of our house. Notice the buried mailbox just to the right of center in the picture.
January 1979: Front of our house. Snow shovel at the ready. Notice the window on the left behind the tree. That was accumulated snow!
January 1979: The snow drifts between the houses would easily bury a car.
Photos and captions courtesy of Rick Johnson, Antioch, Ill.
These amazing photos taken during that period and just sent to us by Rick Johnson of Antioch (along with the captions below) illustrate the incredible harshness of those incredibly harsh winters. THANKS so much Rick for sharing these with us! Talk about bringing back memories... These photos are stunning!
--Tom Skilling
January 1977: Right in the middle of 43 days below freezing. The corner of Deep Lake Road And Silver Lake Road in Antioch, Ill. That street post sign is 8 feet high! That snow was drifted right across the entire road. They had to dig out the intersection with a front end loader.
January 1979: The street in front of our house. Notice the buried mailbox just to the right of center in the picture.
January 1979: Front of our house. Snow shovel at the ready. Notice the window on the left behind the tree. That was accumulated snow!
January 1979: The snow drifts between the houses would easily bury a car.
Photos and captions courtesy of Rick Johnson, Antioch, Ill.
I lived in Chicago from 1977 to 1979. I still have sections of the Chicago Tribune from the January blizzard of 1979, and a tshirt that says "I survived the Chicago blizzard of 1979". I have many pics similar to these and pics of icicles hanging from the roof to the ground. I also remember digging my car out of the snow from the roof to the ground, I remember because it took 2 hours of digging each time. I rode the train from Oak Forest to the train station across from the BOT. Numerous times they couldn't get our trains into the station and we would have to get out and walk a block or more through hip level snow into the station. That doesn't include standing outside the Oak Forest train station for 40 minutes in 2 feet of snow and wind chills of 50 or more below. We went 110 straight days without seeing the ground due to snow coverage and it never went more than 2 days without snowing. Chicago ran out of salt for the roads and had to bring in salt from the salt mines in Hutchinson, Kansas, by barge up the river from St. Louis. Then there were the times they couldn't get groceries in for the stores. How many people remember your stores being empty of everything for 3 straight days? Do I still remember those days, hell yes. That's why I have lived in Dallas, Texas for the past 26 years. Here I get to laugh at the Texas drivers during ice storms. I was born and raised in Kansas and thought I knew what winter weather was until I lived in Chicago.
Linda, thanks for the great comment. All of us at the Weather Center hope you're enjoying Texas weather.