CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Sunday marks the tenth anniversary of the third largest storm in Chicago’s history. It lasted 40, with nearly two feet of snow, and would later come to be called “Snowmageddon.”
According to Accuweather meteorologist Dean Devore, there was no question the storm was coming and that it would be intense.
"As a meteorologist it was an exciting storm to watch," he said. "It was one of those storms that really came together as it was expected, but then exceeded expectations."
Some questioned whether it was being blown out of proportion. But it wasn’t, Devore said.
Some staff members of radio and TV stations stayed in a downtown hotel on Monday night to be sure they’d be on the air in the morning; a lively group in the lobby bar, watching the storm rage outside, with occasional thunder and lightning, or rare thundersnow.
"Yeah it is rare, and it's exciting, it's fun, that's why we dance around as meteorologists when we hear it or see it," Devore said.
Aside from thundersnow, winds reached 70-miles-per-hour.
Daybreak was surreal, with hundreds of cars and CTA buses stuck all night on Lake Shore Drive. Some people abandoned their vehicles, while others rode it out.
WBBM Newsradio's Steve Miller walked it.
"The overriding image of the walk down Lake Shore Drive from Montrose was the cars - a couple of miles of stalled cars; and not just cars, but CTA buses."
The Groundhog Day blizzard, or Snowmageddon, would be the third biggest snow storm in Chicago history, behind 1967 and 1979, but one of the powerful in history, according to the National Weather Service.
Also memorable was the collective desire to help each other out and the way the city was essentially paralyzed for a time.
Related
