DS> In 1982 The temperature at O'Hare Airport in Chicago IL plunged to    
    DS> an all-time record of 26 degrees below zero, and high winds drove    
    DS> the wind chill reading to 77 degrees below zero.  The temperature    
    DS> in Downtown Chicago reached 23 degrees below zero.  A week later,    
    DS> a second arctic surge sent the temperature plunging back down to   
    DS> 25 degrees below zero.   
      
    ML> i remember this... i was in Rantoul about an hour south of Chicago   
    ML> when i was  in the USAF at ICBM school... my young wife, first son and   
    ML> i lived in a small  second floor apartment... we got snowed in that   
    ML> weekend because the drift came  up and covered our doorway... the worst   
      
    NB> How dramatic... and probably more than a bit scary...    
      
   we didn't even know until we tried to go out a few days later... no way to   
   open the door so instead we made more tacos and drank more beer ;)   
      
    ML> part was that 4 or 5 of my buddies from  the base had also come out for   
    ML> an evening of TV, cards amd drinking... it took  a week for us to get   
    ML> out... not fun at all...    
      
    NB> Apparently roads were pretty nasty too then...  with 5 or 6 to dig   
    NB> out, that part couldn't have been too bad... ;0  Did your   
    NB> commanding officers understand...?     
      
   they didn't have much choice ;)   
      
   but our place was right beside the base, too... at one point, we couldn't even   
   see the base there was so much snow... i definitely know what a whiteout is   
   from that experiance... we were very glad that the electric stayed on as the   
   place was all electric... no gas or any other form of heat was available to   
   us... at least we had plenty of food... the guys had brought about 10 pounds   
   of hamburger and all the fixin's for tacos and burritos... that was when i   
   invented breakfast burritos... heat some taco meat and scramble some eggs into   
   it... spoon it all into a tortilla and munch away... nothing like today's   
   "schtuff" called a breakfast taco... yuck and double yuck...   
      
   )\/(ark   
      
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    * Origin:  (1:3634/12.42)