10 years since this unforgettable scene unfolded during historic blizzard in Chicago, Illinois in 2011.
The following written content by Mark Puleo
Rush hour traffic in a massive city may feel like an eternity on any given Tuesday afternoon. However, for a few thousand Chicago commuters in 2011, no drive home from work ever dragged on quite as it did on Groundhog Day — nor will any other likely top it.
Starting on Jan. 31 of that year, snow began falling in the Windy City harder than ever before. By the time the storm ended, more than 2 feet of snow had accumulated in some areas of Illinois.
Hundreds of cars and thousands of residents were suddenly stranded on major roadways, such as Lake Shore Drive, trapped under the rapidly accumulating snow with nowhere to go.
“For me, I think this still will probably go down in my personal record book as the number one winter storm that I’ve covered,” WLS-TV Meteorologist Tracy Butler told AccuWeather. “Of course, 1999, that was another big one, too. And 2015. But this one because it truly met the definition of a blizzard, and [because of] the prolonged impact. And, of course, the pictures that you see now from that storm, they’re firmly entrenched in the minds of so many Chicagoans.”
Butler, who has been forecasting the weather in Chicago since the mid-1990s, said that what made the storm so memorable was all of its different components. On top of the immense snow totals, fierce winds from Lake Michigan coupled with steady lightning, thunder and hail that shook the city for days.
In this Feb. 2, 2011 file photo, hundreds of cars are seen stranded on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago after a winter blizzard of historic proportions wobbled an otherwise snow-tough Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)
The results? More than 2,000 canceled flights, at least 177,000 homes without power, over 900 stranded vehicles stranded on Lake Shore Drive and, somehow, nearly 25,000 calls to 911 made in the span of 24 hours. Read more from AccuWeather.
