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[ksmith]

It's windy and blowing, although the snow is still light. The snowplow guy
has already made one pass through my driveway. So glad I called them to set
something up.

The bulk of the snow is supposed to fall overnight. Could fall as fast as 3
inches/hour. They're still predicting lotsa lotsa, with the possibility that
this could be the biggest snowstorm ever.

Lake Michigan waves are topping 12-15 feet.

It's going to be a biggie.

Comments

[kimsheard.livejournal.com]

Hope you keep power, and then can otherwise just hunker down.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

If the power stays on and the roof don't break, I will be happy.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

We don't get it until tomorrow -- the current snowfall is incidental . . .

Don't know about "biggest snowstorm ever" -- I have some photos of me at maybe five or six, dwarfed by the snow at the edge of our sidewalk in the Chicago suburbs. According to usually-reliable sources (my mother), that one storm dumped well over 3'.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

(This was, of course, back in the days when Men were Men and Women were Women and you could tell which was which just by lookin' at 'em . . .)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

These are the official Chicago records. Guess it depends where they measure the official snowfall.

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
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

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

This would have been Clarendon Hills back in the early 1950s, so may have been localized. Unless we're gonna call Mom a liar . . .

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I think there are often localized bursts that don't get recorded because they're not official measurements/recording sites.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I'm a little surprised at your report on waves -- isn't the lake frozen? Back in olden days, it used to freeze over.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

The lake is not frozen. From the Tribune website:

A lakefront flood warning went into effect at 6 p.m. because of the possibility of 25-foot wind-whipped waves crashing through the ice along the shore and washing over Lake Shore Drive. The left lane of the Stevenson Expressway near Martin Luther King Drive was closed in case traffic needs to be rerouted from the Drive.

All of Lake Shore Drive was shut down as of 7:50 p.m. due to safety concerns over the weather, according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communication.

Officials want to clear the drive of all traffic in order to plow and salt the entire roadway. They hope to have it reopened sometime Tuesday night, according to the OEMC.

I've seen it frozen in the past. Maybe it's been too windy? I don't know.