Snowstorms

Blizzard of 1999

January 1 to 4, 1999 · Category 4, Crippling in the Upper Midwest

A Cat 4 in both the Upper Midwest and Ohio Valley Regions and a Cat 1 in the Northern Plains and Rockies Region, this blizzard crippled the Midwest. Parts of Chicago received over 22 inches, the cities third greatest recorded snowfall. Airports across the area were forced to cancel flights and shutdown. This powerful blizzard took the lives of 73 people and caused 400 million dollars in damages.

What the offices filed during it

Winter weather episodes east of the Rockies from the day before the storm began to the day after it ended, colored by kind.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

Open the live map with snow on the ground

The storm by region

Each region’s thresholds are its own, so the same depth of snow counts for more in the South than in the Northeast.

RegionIndexCategoryArea with snow (sq mi)People under snowAbove the top threshold (sq mi)People above it
Upper Midwest15.30Category 4, Crippling252,01223,896,5511,989184,400
Ohio Valley11.58Category 4, Crippling307,96249,128,095595383,685
Northern Rockies and Plains1.68Category 1, Notable449,7574,711,32700
Northeast0.36Below category 1170,37556,312,55500
South0.07Below category 1144,7656,949,45100
Southeast0.03Below category 171,27714,964,73600

The Regional Snowfall Index is NOAA’s ranking of snowstorms east of the Rockies by how much snow fell, over how wide an area and on how many people, region by region: the area and the population above four snowfall thresholds set for each region, weighted against that region’s own history. A storm is scored in each region it reached, on a scale from 1, notable, to 5, extreme.

The toll the offices filed

Events
1,431
Deaths
19
Injuries
122
Damage
$27 million
Episodes
126

Every winter weather episode the Weather Service filed east of the Rockies in these dates. A few may belong to another system on the same days. Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

Episode by episode

More

The snowstorm of February 3 to 7, 1998The snowstorm of January 13 to 16, 1999Snow nowEvery winter storm filed

Sources

NOAA NCEI Regional Snowfall Index, and the Storm Events Database for the episodes.