Snowed in Like it's 1999

Everybody, I'd like to welcome you to Chicago 365, the 2014 edition!  We're making a few cosmetic changes, and we've got a BIG project coming in the summer, and we'll talk about all of those in a post that should be coming out soon.  But, I wanted to jump right in with an entry that seems quite appropriate given the weather we've been having...

     January 2, 1999.  Chicagoans are waking up to a new year.  Perhaps some of them are still nursing hangovers from New Year's Eve(but my goodness I hope they aren't).  Perhaps some of them are already hearing news reports about this thing called Y2K that's going to blow up the world next year. Perhaps some of them are already thinking about jumping in line to see Star Wars Episode I(if you had a time machine, would you warn them to avoid it?).  Of course, some of them are also thinking about something else: snow, and lots of it.

     Over the next 3 days, Chicago would receive 21.6 inches of snow(finishing just ahead of the Snowpocalypse as the 2nd worst blizzard in Chicago history).  The roads would be blocked up, CPS would cancel classes, and the city wound up closing Lake Shore Drive.  Over the entire Midwest region, 73 people died.  Another impact was a nationwide shortage of blood.  It turns out that the majority of those who donate blood are Midwesterners(go us!), and since a lot of them couldn't make it out to donate because of the blizzard, the country experienced a temporary shortfall.  After the snows passed, the area underwent a brutal cold snap, giving some areas temperatures in double digit negatives(including one rumored event where wind chills sank to 50 below zero) that lasted until the 8th.

     One more fascinating tidbit is this: the 1999 Blizzard's situation somewhat mirrors our own current predicament 15 years later.  In 1999, the snow started on the 2nd, ran for 3 days, and then went bitter cold  a few days later.  This year, the snow started on New Year's Eve, kept right up until Thursday, and is supposed to give us an arctic blast on Monday.  Interesting how history repeats itself, isn't it?