Remembering the Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011, five years later

CHICAGO — It was a storm for the ages; it was one Chicagoans could forever point to as illustrative of their winters’ exceptionalism.

The Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011, which crippled Chicago for more than a day, was also nicknamed by some as “Snowpocalypse” or “Snowmageddon” because of its surreal ability to put everyday life on hold. Monday, February 1, marks the five-year anniversary of the beginning of the storm, which eventually dropped 21.2 inches of snow on the city. 

The 2011 blizzard is currently the third-largest snowstorm in Chicago's history since 1884, trailing only ones in 1999 and 1967. The whiteout conditions infamously stranded hundreds of cars on Lake Shore Drive overnight, as snow and high winds made lanes impassable. Some drivers opted to stay in their cars for several hours. The crisis later prompted the city to begin construction on a Lake Shore Drive emergency escape route to avoid another epic snag in traffic."It'll be a while since we see a storm like that again, we can only hope," remarked WGN-TV chief meteorologist Tom Skilling. Skilling said he and his crew were engaged in wall-to-wall coverage at the time for WGN-TV, and he invited them to his home as a brief reprieve since he lived closer to work than some of the producers. Recounted Skilling, "We got in the car and went to my place in the middle of this howling wind and these six-foot drifts at about two in the morning. There were CTA buses stalled in snow drifts as we went home."

A few hours later, it was up and back to work, Skilling said.