Chicago Blizzard of '67

On January 26, 1967, Chicago's worst snowstorm ever dumped 23 inches and left 4-6 foot snow drifts. When the snow finally stopped on January 27, 60 people had been killed and the city was paralyzed. Amazingly, just two days before the blizzard, the high temperature hit 65 degrees in Chicago. This video includes clips from various archival sources. All rights reserved by video owners.

[@MrMenefrego1]

After the snow of the Blizzard of '67 had abated, my father asked me to remove the snow from his new 1967 Cadillac, Coupe DeVille. I got the snow shovel and removed the snow, but there was ice covering the car. I had an ingenious idea; I'd take the edge of the shovel and chip the ice away! lol, I destroyed that poor Cadillac... and then my father destroyed my rear end!

[@timward3116]

One of the most fun parts of the whole experience was sitting at the kitchen table slurping cereal and listening for the school closures on WGN or other stations.

[@elainebmack]

Yeah! Normally you would be at school, but instead you were still in your pjs and listening to the radio. I loved it! Those radiators were hissing like crazy too.

[@elwoodblues6663]

@@elainebmack i forgot about those radiators

[@ricktraficanti2673]

I just remember my dad telling my sisters to get outside and help him and i

[@timward3116]

@@ricktraficanti2673 My brother did all of the shovelling. My dad was stuck downtown. My brother and I climbed a drift up to the second story (split-level) bedroom window and waved at my mom, who was making a bed. She screamed bloody-murder (afraid that if we fell through the snow we couldn't be saved). It was really great the day before it all started, though. Unseasoably warm and pleasant. Little did we know what would follow.

[@denali9449]

We were juniors at Deerfield HS. Thursday was the last day of finals and we had Friday off. My girlfriends and my last tests were over at 10:30 so I drove her home to Highland Park. By the time I tried to head to my house 5 miles away, there was no way I could get to the main street. My folks said to stay at her house, okay. Her folks were stuck in Chicago until Saturday. Hmm, two high school kids "home alone" for two nights with nothing to do . . . Thank goodness her mom always kept the kitchen well stocked!

[@ge2623]

I was 4 and I remember my dad had to tunnel from the front door to our car. He carried me out and set me up on a drift and I just walked right onto the roof of our house.

[@elainebmack]

I remember those 65 degree days just before that storm hit. I was in the 7th grade, and there were people walking around wearing shorts! That seemed so crazy to me. The next day the temps had dropped, but the big snow didn't hit the southside until around 2:00PM on Wednesday. All the cars coming from downtown had a foot of snow on the hoods, and all the buses were jam packed. Normally it took us 15 minutes to get home on the bus, but on that day it took 3 hours!

[@1955Cal]

I was in 6th grade, it was nice being off from school. We could walk down 87th St. because there was hardly any traffic. My neighbor owned a bar on 87th and Wood and was playing In the good old summertime on their outdoor speakers, that was pretty funny. I remember stores running out of food especially bread and milk. The alleys were really bad people couldn't get their cars out of the garages for days. My dad had a Chicago American news agency and I helped him get the papers delivered the Sunday after to the carriers homes, that was rough. He parked on a main street and I used a sled to get the papers to their houses. I was 12 then so it was pretty fun too!

[@davidrasch3082]

I was in High School at Thomas Kelly. Left that afternoon and walked to F&F Laboratories, worked, then walked home. All was quiet-no noise at all.

[@jimmyb1559]

I was 10. Schools were closed. My brothers and sisters and I were happy. All the cars had rear wheel drive and if you didn’t have snow tires or snow chains you were done for. And even then it was just too bad to get anywhere. I remember after the snow finally melted all the holes in the street that the cars made trying to get free. They ground right through the asphalt. I still remember the smell of burning rubber when trying to push a car out of the snow. Now we have front wheel or four wheel drive that works much better.

[@sodbuster925]

was 12 yrs old and loved it

[@marilynking4003]

I was seventeen and loved it. :)

[@8avexp]

South Bend got hit pretty hard by that blizzard, too. I remember it.

[@geayh]

I remember this well,...The weathermen called for 4 inches of snow...haha ended up with 23 inches...

[@oakroyal]

Now, the weathermen would forecast 23 inches and we would get four. LOL

[@fk4515]

I remember when this happened. In August of 1966 we moved from the Sunset Ridge trailer park on Waukegan Road up to Highwood. I was in 2nd grade. Shortly before lunch the principal came on the PA at Oak Terrace elementary school and announced we would not be coming back after lunch. It was at that time we looked out our classroom window and saw the bicycle racks in the courtyard outside our room were completely buried in snow. When I woke up the next morning there was a drift that covered the first story windows of the neighbor's house.

[@elainebmack]

It's interesting that your announcement was before lunch. Ours came after lunch on the South Side because that storm moved in from the Northwest. I remember looking out of my 3rd floor classroom window and not being able to see downtown. By the time the buses got to us they were filled to capacity and covered with snow, but it was still sunny at 39th St. Very weird!

[@MrMenefrego1]

@@elainebmack Like my late father used to say about Chicagoland weather: "In Chicago, it can be sunny in the back yard and snowing in the front yard!" I was 7 during that wonderful blizzard of '67; wonderful to a 7-year-old, anyway!

[@altfactor]

As a youngster,I recall watching the NBC news on January 27, 1967, and Chet Huntley and David Brinkley had the Chicago storm as their lead story. Two hours later, the storm had vanished off the "news cycle" (outside of the Chicago area) when word broke that the three astronauts who were to fly the first manned Apollo mission had been killed in a flash fire inside their command module on it's Cape Canaveral launch pad during a countdown rehearsal.

[@sweetladyc15]

Didn't know they had snow blowers back then, nice video thanks for sharing

[@Drew.berggg]

Dad had a hardware store in Chicago at Armitage and Bissell and that was the first time I saw a snow blower! We literally could not get out of our house because of the drifts and we were in Skokie. Dad got a window open and pushed me out to help dig out the front door. It was scary but for a nine year old it was fun making forts until parents decided it was too dangerous. I remember a local child was killed in a fort cave in because they couldn't dig him out in time. That is when it became scary and when the local grocery had empty shelves.

[@Drew.berggg]

This was posted by Andrew's mother.

[@MrMenefrego1]

@@Drew.berggg What an interesting story! Although I had forgotten about the deaths. I was 7 at the time of the '67 blizzard, only to live through another; The Blizzard of '79! It was a bad joke on my family; after the blizzard of '67, we moved to Arizona to escape the bad weather, then we moved back to the Chicagoland area one month before the '79 blizzard hit! lol!

[@jerroldkazynski5480]

I walked to HS my senior year in Franklin Park that day, about a mile. Bus never came. By 3rd period, school was canceled so I walked home. The buddies & I just had fun, incredulous how everything was shut down.

[@m.r.keller9642]

And to think that I was born nearly six years later. I do remember the '79 Blizzard, though.

[@annreiter284]

thsnk for posting i still remember yhst it was worse than it looked ky dad told stories of moms nit being able to get milk ti feed their babies bc there was nothing onvthe shelves....he went back and gsve out alk the powdered and csnned milk he had...he akways kept a stash of imperishablez

[@adape0884frank]

Awesome video by any chance do you have anything from 1971❓

[@elwoodblues6663]

yes i do i will post it for you

[@YourAnjl]

I'm glad I missed that one, but there was another bad blizzard in around the mid 1970s. Do you remember?

[@1955Cal]

That was in 1979, I believe.

[@bodorgirl]

Still holds the record & I enjoyed that one as a child

[@ge2623]

I was a freshman in high school, and we were closed for days. It was great.

[@ricjan58]

I was 8 years old in January '67,old enough to remember and enjoy it and too young to shovel it!

[@richardmitani5926]

I was 10 in Jan. 67. I also did no shoveling as my parents, uncle & older brother had to do it all. They also piled up a lot of snow & made a huge slide for me & some neighborhood kids. IT WAS A BLAST !!! However, the other 2 big blizzards I was old enough to shovel so they sucked

[@tildaroberts3052]

My mom dad and I where trapped inside a basement apartment until the workers could dig us out enough the door can be open I was too young to be afraid my mom was freaking out.

[@Sheri45myvideos]

This was a couple of months before I was born. I was born in Berwyn Illinois near Chicago.

[@ge2623]

"Berwyn?"

[@007ndc]

​@@ge2623 stole my line lol. Props to Son of Svengoolie

[@ge2623]

@@007ndc 😁

[@mikehughes4969]

This blizzard made an enormous impact on life. I was conceived during it.

[@MrMenefrego1]

Dad: "Honey, I'm going to shovel the driveway." Mom: "Why don't we go in the bedroom and forget about that snow?"

[@tomlorenzen4062]

Still say 2011 blizzard had more snow, was just way too windy to get an accurate measurement.

[@sharondemkovich6265]

Why isn't there any sound with this video? Boring...zzzz

[@tomlorenzen4062]

No sound with projector back then...get a clue