Groundhog Day Blizzard hit Milwaukee hard in 2011

Last Tuesday’s snowstorm dumped 5.9 inches of snow on Milwaukee; some communities reported as much as 9 inches of snow. Digging out took much of the day.

And then came more snow this past weekend. A few more of these, and we’d almost have as much as we got in two days — 10 years ago this week.

On Feb. 1-2, 2011, in what’s been labeled the Groundhog Day Blizzard, Milwaukee got 17.6 inches of snow — 16 inches of that coming in one 24-hour period. Some cities in southeast Wisconsin had even more: Racine and Kenosha both had more than 23 inches of snow.

And it wasn’t just the snow. Pushing all that white stuff around were some brutal winds — Milwaukee reported peak wind gusts of 54 mph. Snowdrifts reached as high as 10 feet; waves along the Lake Michigan shoreline got as high as 16 feet.

Everything shut down — schools, colleges, government offices, businesses, bus lines, movie theaters, even funerals. Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport shut down from 7 p.m. Feb. 1 to 7 a.m. Feb. 2, stranding travelers who were trying to escape to warmer climes.

Among those stranded travelers were ticketholders for Super Bowl XLV in Dallas, where the Packers would take on (and beat) the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Dallas was battling the same weather pattern, too: For much of the week leading up to the game, the Packers and Steelers had to practice indoors because of ice storms and subzero temperatures in the Big D.

Of course, it was nothing like the weather mayhem back home.

Large swaths of the freeway system were shut down by the storm as plows tried to keep up with the deluge. A few hours before his first State of the State message on Feb. 1, newly minted Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker declared a state of emergency. About 100 members of the Wisconsin National Guard were sent out to rescue stranded motorists; several backups on I-94 in Kenosha County left some drivers stuck in their cars for up to seven hours.

The storm was so fast and heavy that the Milwaukee County Zoo had to cancel its annual Groundhog Day celebration. Wynter, the zoo’s resident groundhog, stayed inside her cave instead.

The digging out took several days. Milwaukee Public Schools remained closed Feb. 3 because bus stops and many sidewalks were still snow-covered — and because wind chills were expected to hit 30 below that day.

By Feb. 4, a Friday, the snow emergency in the city was over, but the blizzard’s toll was still mounting. In its bid to clear the streets of snow, the city of Milwaukee towed nearly 300 cars and wrote about 1,800 parking tickets. Four people died in southern Wisconsin as a result of the blizzard, three of them shoveling- or snowblower-related.

BENNY SIEU/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL People shovel out on Milwaukee’s east side on Feb. 2, 2011, after the city got more than 17 inches of snow. See more photos from the 2011 Groundhog Day Blizzard at

SENTINEL BENNY SIEU/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL A car is being towed, as soon as it can be dug out of a snowdrift, on Milwaukee’s east side on Feb. 2, 2011. City crews began towing cars left under mountains of snow in a bid to clear the streets.

BENNY SIEU/ MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL People try to clear sidewalks of drifting piles of snow after the two-day Groundhog Day Blizzard ended Feb. 2, 2011.