Regional Forecasts

Palm Sunday Snow One of Chicago's Heaviest So Late in the Spring

At a Glance

A swath of Palm Sunday snow blanketed the Midwest from Missouri to Michigan.
Some areas picked up 6 to 9 inches of snow.
It was one of the heaviest snowfalls so late in spring in at least two cities.
Warm pavement limited impact on roads in most, but not all areas.

A storm system squeezed out some surprisingly high snowfall totals in parts of the upper Midwest on Palm Sunday 2019, one of the heaviest days of snow so late in spring in some areas.

Chicago's O'Hare Airport measured 5.4 inches of snow on April 14. The only other day with as much snow so late in spring was April 16, 1961, which also had 5.4 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service

(MORE: Plains, Midwest Have Seen a Lot of Extreme Weather in 2019)

Snow fell at the rate of 1 to 2 inches per hour at O'Hare, accompanied by occasional lightning, and winds gusting from 30 to 40 mph, canceling hundreds of flights and postponing the final game of a weekend series between the Los Angeles Angels and Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

This Palm Sunday snow was also the second heaviest calendar-day snow so late in spring in Peoria, Illinois, which picked up 5 inches of snow.

The combination of wet snow and winds triggered some power outages in parts of Illinois.

It was also the second heaviest snow so late in the season in both Grand Rapids and Muskegon, Michigan, again eclipsed only by a few days in the April 1961 snowstorm.

(MORE: Here's How Often it Snows in April)

All told, several locations picked up 5 to 9 inches of snow from northern Illinois into extreme southeast Wisconsin and Lower Michigan.

Estimated snowfall during the Palm Sunday event on April 14, 2019. Areas of heaviest snowfall are shown in light purple.

Fortunately, given warm ground, road issues were relatively few, as most snowfall accumulations occurred in grassy areas, on vehicle tops, trees and rooftops. However, some plows needed to be called out in some areas.

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