Chicago Area Weather Disasters
Oak Lawn Tornado 1967
Chicago Blizzard 2011
Chicago Big Snow 1967
Illinois River Flood 2008
Rockford Flash Flood 2006
Plainfield Tornado 1990
Jim Allsopp, National Weather Service, Chicago/Romeoville
First Lego League Kickoff September 8, 2013
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Tornadoes
River Floods/Flash Floods
Lightning
Hail
Thunderstorm Winds
Winter Storms
Extreme Heat
Extreme Cold
Drought
Lake Michigan – coastal flood, rip currents, seiche
• Tornadoes occur anywhere
in the Chicago metro area
• Tornadoes can strike large
cities – Ft. Worth, Miami,
Nashville, Salt Lake City
• Tornadoes occur at the
lakefront
Weak Tornado (70-75%)
• EF0 – winds 65 to 85 mph
• EF1 – winds 86 to 110 mph
Strong Tornado (20-25%)
• EF2 – winds 111 to 135 mph
• EF3 – winds 136 to 165 mph
Violent Tornado (<2%)
• EF4 – winds 166 to 200 mph
• EF5 – winds over 200 mph
EF4 & EF5 cause 85% of tornado fatalities!
• 10 Violent Tornadoes in 90 Years
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March 28, 1920 – F4, Melrose Park and Maywood
April 7, 1948 – F4 Manteno, IL to Hebron, IN
April 17, 1963 – F4 Essex & Bourbonnais, IL to Medaryville, IN
April 11, 1965 (Palm Sunday) – F4 Crystal Lake
April 21, 1967 – 3 F4s Belvidere, Lake Zurich, Oak Lawn
March 20, 1976 – F4 Deep River to MI City, IN
June 13, 1976 – F4 Lemont
August 28, 1990 – F5 Plainfield
• 10 tornadoes in the
Chicago area
• 3 F4 Tornadoes, 58
killed, 1000 injured
• Part of a large outbreak
across the Midwest
• F4
• 25 mile path, ½ mile wide.
• 24 fatalities, 500 injured
• 13 fatalities and 300 injuries
occurred as a dozen busses
were tossed at Belvidere High
School at school dismissal.
• F4
• 16 mile path, 200 yards
wide.
• 33 killed, 500 injured
• Struck busy intersection at
500 PM on a Friday
afternoon.
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Lemont – Argonne Lab
F4
3.3 mile path, 1 mile wide!
2 killed, 23 injured.
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Oswego – Plainfield – Joliet
F5
16 mile path, 1/4 mile wide
29 killed, 350 injured
• Only F5 ever in Chicago area
• Only F5 in U.S. in August
Plainfield
• Late July Heat Wave in 1916
• July 26 -July 30 most oppressive period of heat ever in
Chicago.
• Min temp in the 80s for 5 straight nights!
• 1930s Dust Bowl Summers
• A series of hot dry summers in the 1930s.
• June of 1933 - hottest June on record.
• Chicago's official all time high of 105 set July 24 1934. (109 at
Midway on July 23)
• July 6 through 14, 1936 - eight 100s in a row at Midway.
• July 14, 1936 - hottest day ever over northern IL.
• 112 at Rockford, 111 at Aurora , 104 at Midway.
• Hot Summers of the 1950s
• 6 of 13 hottest summers1949-1959.
• July 1955 - hottest month on record.
• 1955 - Chicago’s all time hottest summer.
• 46 days in the 90s including 11 straight (also in 1953 and 1954)
• The Hot Dry Summer of 1988
• 47 days with temperatures in the 90s, 7 days in the 100s. Both records.
• The Deadly Summer of 1995
• 629 people died in July heat wave. Deadliest weather event in Chicago
history.
• July 13 - 104 at O’Hare, 106 at Midway, Heat index 119 at O’Hare, 125 at
Midway.
• 2nd hottest summer on record.
Jan 26-27 1967
Jan 12-14 1979
Jan 1-3 1999
Jan 31-Feb 2 2011
Snowfall (inches)
23.0
20.3
21.6
21.2
Liquid Equivalent
(inches)
2.40
1.36
1.39
1.57
snow/liquid ratio
9.6 to 1
14.9 to 1
15.5 to 1
13.5 to 1
duration of
accumulating snow
(hours)
~29
~38
~54
~40
peak wind gust
(mph)
53
39
43
61
maximum snow
depth (inches)
23
29
18
18
snow stayed on the
ground through
(number of days)
March 9
42 days
March 6
51 days
January 23
21 days
February 17
16 days
temperatures after
the storm
Jan 28-29
low 15/high 28
low 20/high 30
Jan 15-16
low -19/high 9
low -2/high 22
Jan 4-5
low -9/high 5
low -16/high 18
Feb 3-4
low -6/high 16
low 5/high 25
• The Winter of 1903-1904
• The coldest winter on record.
• January, 1912
• Second coldest January on record.
• Record stretch of 10 days in a row with lows below zero.
• 13 days below zero for the month.
• Bitter Cold Christmas 1983
• Dec 22-25 temperature below zero for 100 consecutive hours.
• Dec 24th low temp of -25, high of -11, coldest day in Chicago.
• Record Cold January 20, 1985
• -27F. All time coldest temperature for Chicago.
• October 9-11, 1954
• Torrential rain over northern Illinois resulted in record flooding.
• Chicago rainfall for the 3 day period 6.72 inches.
• August 14-15, 1987
• Record Salt Creek flood. 16,000 buildings affected.
• Record rainfall 9.35 inches fell 9 PM August 13th - 3 PM August 14th.
• O’Hare completely surrounded by water. Kennedy and Edens
Expressways had 300 vehicles stranded in water up to 6 feet deep.
• July 18-20 1996
• Record rainfall over southwest suburbs.
• State 24 rainfall record of 16.94 inches at Aurora.
• Record flood at 19 river gages - DuPage, Fox, Illinois.
• September 2008
• Remnants of tropical storms Gustav and Ike brought torrential rainfall
• Total Sep rainfall for Chicago was 13.63 inches.
• Flooding caused the Brookfield Zoo to closed for the first time.
• April 17-18, 2013
• 4 to 8 inches of rain on already saturated soil
• Record river flooding on Des Plaines River, North Branch of Chicago River, and
Illinois River
• Illinois River dam damaged by barges. Marseilles flooded.
• Very dry conditions leading up to the fire
• Cold front with strong dry southwest winds October 8, 1871
• Almost everything made of wood – buildings, sidewalks, roads, piles of
firewood for heating. Flammable shingles and tar roofs.
• 300 killed, 100,000 homeless (1/3 of the population)
• Peshtigo, Wisconsin Fire
• Peshtigo Firestorm – wall of flame
1 mile high, 5 miles wide and
moving 90 mph
• 1500-2500 killed (greatest death
toll for any US fire)
• 1.2 million acres consumed
• Fire generated a tornado that
“threw rail cars and houses into
the air”.
• http://weather.gov/chicago
• From menu on left  “top news archives”  8/28/2013
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