p. 41 Deprew was not the sort of man to lounge in his office fretting.

• A polar weather condition caused by a heavy cloud cover over the snow, in which the light coming from above is approximately equal to the light reflected from below, and which is characterized by absence of shadow, invisibility of the horizon, and discernibility of only very dark objects.
• A fluid, usually white, that dries quickly and is applied to printed matter to cover mistakes.

p. 55 The two little boys watched at the window as George disappeared into a wall of swirling white, then they turned back to their play.

• A violent snowstorm with winds blowing at a minimum speed of 35 miles (56 kilometers) per hour and visibility of less than one-quarter mile (400 meters) for three hours.
• A very heavy snowstorm with high winds.

p. 25  The exact origin of the word blizzard is disputed and debated. The English claim it came from the common Midland expression "may I be blizzarded." The notion is that the astonished speaker has been knocked over by and icy blast. Others say the word is derived form the German blizartig, which means "lightning-like."

      In the United States some insist the word came from a old western phrase "to be blizzareded," or struck many times by violent punches. And we do know that in Tennessee and Kentucky, the word is used to refer to a period of intense cold, even without wind or snow.

p. 3 All of this storm activity was being monitored closely at the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Washington, D. C. The Signal Corps was the precursor of our present-day United States National Weather Service an the agency charged with making weather "indications" (as forecasts were called at the time.)

consuming

The Great Fire

p. 11  -  During these thirty-one hours of terror, over 100,000 people were forced to flee the consuming flames.

p. 72  -  On his own now, Frear ran for his life, going up any street that was not consumed in flames.

p. 81 As the roofs and then the interiors of the surrounding structures were consumed by the flames, a scorching wind swept around the alley.

Blizzard

p. 21 All passengers and crew - forty-seven men and five women - escaped and now found themselves in a driving snowstorm, watching the train being consumed by flames.

p. 23  -  Already some of those embers were landing in his yard and igniting the grass and leaves.

p. 34  -  Along the way he noticed that several houses were smoking and on the verge of  igniting.

p. 49  -  He was surprised to discover the place completely empty; everyone was out in the street watching the fire's ominous glow.

page 72 - In the business district, he saw looters piling wagons high with all sorts of goods.

p. 124 Before the fire was completely extinguished, Chicago citizens were already demanding answers to some angry questions.