The Blizzard of 1999 was a strong winter

snowstorm A winter storm is an event in which wind coincides with varieties of precipitation that only occur at freezing temperatures, such as snow, mixed snow and rain, or freezing rain. In temperate continental climates, these storms are not necessar ...

which struck the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

and portions of central and eastern

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, hitting hardest in

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

, southern

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, and southern

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

dumping as much as of snow in many areas. Chicago received a recorded . The storm hit just after

New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Whi ...

, between January 2 and January 4, 1999. Travel was severely disrupted throughout the areas and the cities of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

were also paralyzed. Additionally, record low temperatures were measured in many towns in the days immediately after the storm (January 4 – January 8).

The storm

The storm produced of snow in Chicago and was rated by the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...

as the second worst blizzard to hit Chicago in the 20th century, after the Blizzard of 1967. Soon after the snow ended, record low temperatures occurred with values of or lower in parts of Illinois and surrounding states on January 3 and 4, including a handful of daily minimum temperatures around on January 4 in the area of heaviest accumulation. The areas with the heaviest snows, or more, included central and northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, central and northern Indiana, southern Michigan, northern Ohio, and southeast Canada. The storm also traveled across southern Ontario dumping about of snow throughout the entire Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. South of the snow line, the storm produced a significant

ice storm An ice storm, also known as a glaze event or a silver storm is a type of winter storm characterized by freezing rain. The U.S. National Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumulation of at least of ice on ...

across western New York, near the

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region and the

Genesee Valley The Genesee River is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York in the United States. The river provided the original power for the Rochester area's 19th century mills and still provides hy ...

where numerous power failures were reported.

Snowfall totals

Lake effect winds off

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

, unusual for the Chicago shoreline, resulted in enhanced snowfall for communities within about of the lake. Chicago and its northern suburbs received between of snow. Chicago broke a one-day snowfall record with falling on January 2. The total snowfall figures are below: *South Haven, MI: *Chicago/O'Hare, IL: *Chicago/Midway, IL: *Slinger, WI: *Galesburg, IL: *Barrington, IL: *Lake Villa, IL: *Chatsworth, IL: *Dixon, IL: *Mount Clemens, MI: *Toronto, ON: *Portage, IN: *Glenwood, IL: *Olympia Fields, IL: *Brookfield, IL: *LaGrange Park, IL: *Remington, IN: *Aurora, IL: *Crestwood, IL: *Bloomington/Normal, IL: *Algonquin, IL: *Bourbonnais, IL: *Streamwood, IL: *Lafayette, IN: *Orland Park, IL: *Rochester, MI: *Channahon, IL: *Coal City, IL: *Fairbury, IL: *Geneva, IL: *DeKalb, IL: *Valparaiso, IN: *Willow Springs, IL: *Detroit, MI: *Earlville, IL: *Monticello, IN: *Naperville, IL: *Ottawa, ON: *Mundelein, IL: *Compton, IL: *Rochelle, IL: *Harvard, IL: *Rockford, IL: *Flint, MI:

Impact

Midwest airports were closed, some for several days. Thousands of flights were canceled. Detroit Metro (DTW) was one of the most severely impacted airports. Thousands of passengers traveling on

Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) was a major American airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines, Inc. by a merger. The merger, approved on October 29, 2008, made Delta the largest airline in the world until the American Airlines ...

(NWA) were stranded for hours. In 2001, NWA agreed to pay more than $7 million in compensation to stranded passengers. Some passengers spent more than eight and a half hours in their planes after arriving at DTW. In southern Ontario,

Toronto Pearson International Airport Lester B. Pearson International Airport , commonly known as Toronto Pearson International Airport, is an international airport located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the main airport serving Toronto, its metropolitan area, and the surr ...

was shut down, while numerous flights from

Ottawa International Airport Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core of ...

were canceled. A series of additional snowstorms over the next 10 days gave Toronto a total of , a record monthly total for the month of January, prompting then-mayor

Mel Lastman Melvin Douglas Lastman (March 9, 1933 – December 11, 2021) was a Canadian businessman and politician who served as the third mayor of North York from 1973 to 1997 and 62nd mayor of Toronto from 1998 to 2003. He was the first person to serve ...

to infamously call in the

Canadian Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...

to assist the snow removal with the city at a near standstill. As a result, the mayor and city, through the media endured ridicule from other parts of Canada more prone to such high snowfall amounts. The series of storms that hit Toronto were severe enough to be the winter Storm of the Century despite the fact they were more than one storm. Rail service was halted or delayed, and

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

s were impassable.

Lake Shore Drive Lake Shore Drive (officially Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable Lake Shore Drive, and called DuSable Lake Shore Drive, The Outer Drive, The Drive, or LSD) is a multilevel expressway that runs alongside the shoreline of Lake Michigan, and adjacent to ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

was closed for the first time ever. 300 of the Chicago Transit Authority’s 2600-series cars went out of service. Stranded travellers were accommodated in

emergency shelter An emergency shelter is a place for people to live temporarily when they cannot live in their previous residence, similar to homeless shelters. The main difference is that an emergency shelter typically specializes in people fleeing a specific ...

s. The bitterly cold temperatures created large ice floes on the inland waterways, causing shipping delays. Schools were closed for several days, and many businesses were closed as well. Of those that were able to remain open, stores selling snow removal equipment were doing a booming business. There was also a nationwide blood shortage since a high proportion of blood donations come from the Midwest and many could not make it to the hospital and donate during the storm or during the subsequent cold snap. In much of Northwest Indiana, blackouts occurred for days at a time. Porter County was without electricity for about 3 days total. Local buildings, such as schools, offered generator-powered heat in their auditoriums.

The costs

Human cost: 78 people perished in the storm. The breakdown of deaths is as follows: *39 auto-related deaths *5 snowmobile-related deaths *32 deaths from over-exertion and heart attacks primarily due to shoveling snow *2 froze to death Financial cost: Losses as a result of the storm are estimated between $300 and $400 million. Federal aid: 45 counties in Illinois and some areas of Indiana were declared federal disaster areas by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

and eligible to receive federal aid.

References