With all the talk of weather change, we have forgotten exactly what winter is about. Chicago for the last several years has had very mild winters. However, we've had a lot of snow this past week and the temperature outside right now is -2° with windchills of up to [or should I say down to?] -26°.
This is more like the winters I grew up with. As a reminder, here is a picture from 1967 and the snowstorm/blizzard on January 26th. We had 23 inches of snow in 12 hours with 6-12 foot drifts!
Lake Shore Drive, the major lakefront roadway
No one was going anywhere.
Over the next couple of weeks there was more snow and, in typical Chicago fashion, the temperatures plummeted. It seems, for as long as I can remember, that everytime there is a major snowfall in Chicago the thermometer drops and we have a period of extremely cold weather.
I remember the storm in 1967. I was at university and hardly ever came home. I did that weekend for a friend's wedding. She had the wedding [it ended in divorce; I wonder if there's a connection?] I also made it back, driving, to school on Sunday. I don't remember how. The buses were stranded in the middle of the major streets. It took weeks for people to dig out in some cases.
Weather is always a topic of conversation with people. Usually one of the first things we talk about when we meet. We're the same here in Chicago. We have one other saying about weather that is really pretty accurate:
If you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes. It'll change.
it's usually true...
1 comment:
Funny--we have that same saying in Vermont.
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