Dear Tom,

I’ve noticed that 3.1 inches of snow fell in Chicago on 23 April 1967. Was that after the Oak Lawn and Belvidere tornadoes?

Jeff Kozinski, Mokena

Dear Jeff,

It certainly was. On Friday, April 21, 1967, temperatures rose to 74 just ahead of a cold front that triggered severe thunderstorms and a family outbreak of at least ten tornadoes in the Chicago area, including the deadly Oak Lawn and Belvidere tornadoes. Cold air swept into the area behind the cold front, and by late Sunday afternoon, temperatures were hovering in the middle 30s. As a low-pressure system approached Chicago, snow began falling just before 4:30 p.m. By the time the snow ended later that evening, more than 3″ covered the ground, compounding the misery of still shell-shocked victims of Friday’s F4 twister.