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We’re all hunkering down here in the Midwest since a blizzard is supposed to be hitting us pretty much all day Tuesday and Wednesday. As blizzards go, it’s probably not a big one… just enough to close the Interstates, schools, and some businesses. There have definitely been far worse – here are 10 of them.
1. The Blizzard of 1888, AKA The Great White Hurricane. We’re worried about the potential of 16 inches right now; can you imagine 50 inches?? That’s more than four feet of fallen snow. The drifts were even worse – with winds of more than 45 miles an hour, drifts reached more than 50 feet in some areas of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Railroads were shut down completely, which stranded people and goods for up to a week in some cases. Fire departments were unable to function, so when a building caught fire, it just burned. The losses from fires alone were about $25 million. More than 400 people died in the storm, including 200 in New York City alone.
2. The Children’s Blizzard. 1888 was a brutal year for snow, apparently – two months before the Great White Hurricane hit out east in March, the Children’s Blizzard pummeled Nebraska and the Midwest. But no one saw it coming. It was a relatively nice day out (for January in Nebraska, anyway) and people were at work, at school, or doing chores outside. The blizzard hit quick, dropping temps to -40 in some places in a matter of hours. The snow was of a powdery nature (those of you who don’t experience snow are probably rolling your eyes, but there are definitely different types of snow, and it isn’t all powdery) and so the wind easily blew it around and made visibility impossible. It’s called the Children’s Blizzard because so many schoolchildren were victims of the storm as they headed home from school. In one case, a schoolteacher tried to lead her charges to her boarding house just 82 yards from the schoolhouse, but visibility was so bad that they got lost on the way. All of the children died; the teacher survived but had to have both feet amputated because of the severe frostbite she had suffered.
3. The Knickerbocker Storm. The Knickerbocker Theater was one of the hottest spots in Washington, D.C. in 1922 – it was the newest and largest movie house in town. It just so happened that people were enjoying an evening out at the movies on January 28, 1922, when the flat roof abruptly caved in from the weight of the snow it had received over the previous two days. It brought down the balcony and part of the brick wall. Congressman Andrew Jackson Barchfeld was one of the 98 people killed during the disaster. Both the theater’s owner and architect later committed suicide.
4. The Armistice Day Blizzard. On November 11, 1940, a blizzard overtook Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. Up to 27 inches of snow fell, resulting in the deaths of 154 people. A lot of them simply froze to death, but perhaps the most tragic of the deaths were the 66 people who died in Lake Michigan when three freighters and two smaller boats sank under the weight of the snow.
5. The April Fools’ Day Blizzard. In a lot of areas of the country, if the weatherperson told you on March 31 that a huge blizzard was coming your way, you’d be certain it was an April Fools’ Day joke. When just that happened in 1997, people from Maryland to Maine weren’t going to be fooled – they were sure it was a hoax. It ended up being one of the worst spring snowstorms in history. More than 25 inches of snow were recorded at Boston’s Logan Airport, annihilating the previous April record of 13.3 inches. Road crews couldn’t keep up with the rapid precipitation, so roads became completely impassable and some narrow streets appeared to be totally obliterated.
6. The Storm of the Century. Even with seven years left in the century at that point, forecasters and media felt certain that this 1993 storm was the blizzard that would take the cake. From March 12-13, bands of snow, sleet, storms and tornadoes stretched from Canada to Central America, the main impact points being the entire eastern seaboard and Cuba. Birmingham, Alabama, reported up to 17 inches of snow and even the Florida Panhandle saw about four inches. This probably doesn’t sound like much to states who see a lot of snow, but in warmer climates where the cities have literally no reason to invest in snowplows and other means of snow removal, this had a huge impact on transportation and created a big problem. Overall, more than $6.6 billion worth of damage was done as a result of the Storm of the Century.
7. The Great Blizzard of 1899, AKA The Snow King. This was the last time a blizzard did so much damage to the southeast was during the Storm of the Century. It started way down in Fort Myers, Florida, and went as far up as New York. Even Cuba reported a frost that killed a lot of crops. The port of New Orleans totally iced over, and Tallahassee recorded a temperature of -2 degrees Fahrenheit – the only recorded instance of a sub-zero Fahrenheit temperature in Florida to this day.
8. Halloween Blizzard. I have some memories of trudging through the snow to trick-or-treat, but never to this extent. In 1991, Wisconsin, Minnesota and northern Iowa were hit by an ice storm. But it wasn’t just contained to All Hallows Eve – the storm, which turned to snow, continued in some areas until November 3, dumping a then-state-record high of 36.9 inches of snow on Duluth, Minnesota. The Twin Cities saw 28.4 inches, which is also nothing to sneeze at. More than 100,000 people were without power, some for nearly up to a week. $63 million was declared in damages; 11 counties in Minnesota and 52 counties in Iowa were declared disaster areas. I’m guessing most of those were in northern Iowa, because at nine years old, I would have been my trick-or-treating prime and I don’t remember having a problem in southern Iowa.
9. The Blizzard of 1966. I’ll let this YouTube clip speak for this storm that hit Rochester and other areas of New York like a ton of bricks and got kids out of school for a week.
10. The Great Lakes Storm of 1913. Cyclones are bad. Blizzards are bad. Cyclonic Blizzards sound downright terrifying. The Great Lakes have always been prone to awful and sudden storms, but this one was particularly horrible. Conditions were just right for disaster – whiteout snowsqualls resulted in the deaths of more than 250 people; 19 ships were destroyed and 12 sank entirely, including some that still haven’t been found. Hurricane-speed winds of more than 70 miles per hour hit four of the five Great Lakes.
What’s the worst snow storm you can remember?
Comments (69)
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No mention of the Blizzard of ’78? New Englanders are still scarred from that one. Here in Rhode Island, store shelves empty of milk and bread at the first hint of snow.
The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin is a great read.
posted by Kate on 12-8-2009 at 6:14 pm
I was at St. Olaf College during the 91 Blizzard. We had 26 inches on Halloween. The weird thing about that year is that it all melted before mid-November and then we had another 24 inches on Thanksgiving.
My first memory is of an April 18th blizzard of 18 inches in Cedar Rapids Iowa, 1973.
posted by MrFish on 12-8-2009 at 6:23 pm
I remember the “Storm of the Century.” A roommate and I had driven from Indiana to Florida on spring break, and the storm hit while we were on the way back. We were stranded in Cartersville, Georgia, for three days because the roads could not be cleared.
posted by Paul on 12-8-2009 at 6:28 pm
Rochester, NY definitely gets some of the worst storms ever. I specifically remember ’91 and ’96 in particular – the former because of all the ice and the latter simply from the sheer amount of snow.
posted by Drew on 12-8-2009 at 6:40 pm
Blizzard of ’78!!! I was a kid in New York City and school was closed for three days because of it. I lived in Co-Op City in the northern Bronx, which is well known for its wind gusts (the buildings were spaced perfectly to generate LOADS of wind. Thanks to the wind gusts.. there were snow drifts well over 6 feet tall. I went out to play with my best friend Rosie in the snow… and we were playing in the street because the snow was so high.. no cars could get through. At one point, Rosie started to sink into the snow and she started to scream.. then she just stopped sinking, because she was standing on top of a CAR that was buried in the drift!
posted by Mindy on 12-8-2009 at 6:49 pm
The 1998 ice storm in Ontario, Quebec and neighbouring states killed about 30 people and caused billions of dollars in damage, especially to power lines, which were torn down by the weight of the ice on them. Millions of people were without electricity, some for as long as three weeks. Not a blizzard, perhaps, but certainly a noteworthy winter storm.
posted by Jon. on 12-8-2009 at 6:52 pm
It would be nice if the title of this article was \Ten of the Worst Blizzards Ever to Hit the United States\.
posted by Armauld on 12-8-2009 at 7:13 pm
My family were coming back from Daytona Beach heading towards PA when the ’93 blizzard struck. I remember being stuck in Richmond, VA for 3 days due to all roads into MD/PA were closed.
posted by Scott on 12-8-2009 at 7:58 pm
The Storm of the Century occurred at the front end of my Spring Break (yes really) of my senior year of high school in Mississippi. It seriously impacted my ability to get to North Carolina as I-20 through Alabama was closed for an extended amount of time.
My mother was a junior high school teacher at the time and a group of students from her school were returning from a field trip in Washington, D.C. that weekend. Their bus got stuck on I-20 near Anniston, AL and the students had to be retrieved by the local army base. Those students, who had gotten to miss a week of school right before Spring Break, spent most of their Spring Break enjoying MRIs with thousands of other stranded travelers.
posted by Tom in GA on 12-8-2009 at 7:59 pm
Substitute MREs for MRIs… they were hungry, not mentally suspect (beyond the normal parameters for 9th graders).
posted by Tom in GA on 12-8-2009 at 8:19 pm
I’m hanging out in Ames enjoying the blizzard. I played some ultimate frisbee earlier this evening and I plan on xcountry skiing to class tomorrow!
posted by Robert N. on 12-8-2009 at 8:36 pm
We don’t get a whole lot of snow down here in south Georgia, so I have a question for y’all….what constitutes a blizzard? When does “snow” become a blizzard?
posted by Lynley on 12-8-2009 at 9:14 pm
great article! 2 and 3 particularly creeped me out for some reason
posted by Randy on 12-8-2009 at 9:29 pm
@Lynley: I think that a “blizzard” is a snowstorm that has sustained winds of over 40 mph … the sort of weather you need Rudolph to get you home!
posted by Carlos on 12-8-2009 at 9:51 pm
The Blizzard of ’78! The storm came on so heavy and fast in Massachusetts that over 3500 drivers were stranded on Route 95. Many people died in their cars because they left their engines running and suffocated from the fumes. My parents still tell my brother and I how they lived for 10 days in a house with 30 people in Hull waiting for rescue crews to get to them – with a week old infant. You’d think it’s a typical parent “uphill both ways” story, but luckily they documented with pictures and a journal. Crazy stuff.
posted by Abby on 12-8-2009 at 10:09 pm
The Blizzard of 77, aka “White Death” struck southern Ontario in January of that year. Snow was over the rooftops and children were stuck in school for days. Lots of people died in their homes and cars, and by way of no police/ambulance service.
Rescuers snowshoed to rooftops and broke through roofs to get people help. I wasn’t alive but feel like I experienced it because people still talk about it like it was yesterday.
posted by Amanda on 12-8-2009 at 10:45 pm
i was actually born during the storm of 66 in rochester. my mother went into labor and couldnt get to the hospital, so a snowmobiler took her. i also lived in birmingham for the storm of the century. we were without power for 8 days.
posted by franklin on 12-8-2009 at 10:46 pm
Ah yes, glad to see someone mention the Ice Storm of ’98. You still see “I survived the Ice Storm of ’98″ shirts and stickers here in Maine sometimes. I was in 5th grade at the time. We didn’t go to school for days, and some of my friend’s houses were without power for more than a week.
When we finally went back to school, the bus passed a field of tall grass on the way there. I will never forget the way that each blade of grass was an inch thick with ice and the way the morning sun glittered off that field.
posted by Squirrelgirl on 12-8-2009 at 11:13 pm
@ Lynley: Blizzards are characterized by sustained wind speeds of 35 mph or more during the presence of heavy snow. The combination of heavy snowfall and high winds are what cause “whiteouts” which are conditions where visibility is zip! Usually the aftermath is downed power lines, people stuck in their houses because they can’t shovel out and massive traffic issues.
posted by Jen on 12-8-2009 at 11:26 pm
Yes, the blizzard of 1978. I was in college at BGSU living in an apartment, no t.v. and no radio. So we had no idea it was coming. We just woke up in the morning to a lot of drifted snow. Classes were cancelled for a week as I recall. The National Guard came in to transport medical personnel to hospitals and patients. No one else was allowed to drive. We were stuck in the building for at least a day because the snow had completely drifted over the first floor of the building and we couldn’t get out of the doors. We were without power but had gas stoves so cooked up everything in our refrigerators and freezers as it was going to spoil anyway. We had a big smorgasbord! Ah, good times.
posted by Lola on 12-8-2009 at 11:39 pm
I’ve lived in Minneapolis my whole life and was 8 years old when the Halloween Blizzard hit. When I first went out trick-or-treating, I don’t think there was any snow on the ground. Fairly early on, I started seeing people out shoveling their sidewalks. Those of us who have been here long enough know what to do when a huge snowstorm hits: shovel early, shovel often! I made a haul that year, I think we were one of the few ones to brave it and we got the extra candy.
posted by Andrew on 12-8-2009 at 11:43 pm
I remember the storm of the century even though I was a little girl. My birthday was the 13th and my party was that Sunday. I remember it was Barbie theme and my mom had invited both boys and girls in my class. The parents had to park up to two blocks away in order to get to our house because of the snow. Most of the girls came out but none of the boys, my mom laughed and said that it was because boys were afraid of the snow. It was also snowing on the day I was born and my neighbors had to help my dad dig out the car to get my mom to the hospital. This is why I love the snow and cold today.
posted by Jo on 12-9-2009 at 12:05 am
I remember about 4 years ago there was a bad ice storm which turned to snow in South Dakota the weekend before Thanksgiving. It may have been in other states also. Lots of people were without power for weeks, some farm houses for months. Lots of damage was done also to houses. The weight of all the ice is what was to blame, not to mention a lot of snow on top (not sure how much because to me it always seems about 3 times as much as it really is!!). Im not sure if its the worst one I lived through growing up in SD but it was definitely memorable.
posted by Heather on 12-9-2009 at 4:27 am
I remember being so mad during the 1993 storm because we couldn’t drive to our favorite sledding hill. Our minivan only had front wheel drive and couldn’t even handle pulling out of our driveway. I was on edge anyway because we had to cancel my 10th birthday party (Jo — at least you still got to have yours). I thought it would have be fun to have a party in the snow!
posted by Christina on 12-9-2009 at 7:56 am
I was born, like many others here in New England, in November of 1978. Which meant that I was in college for the April Fool’s storm. We had a great time making snow forts and having snowball fights.
Some friends of mine went up to Maine the next year to visit family on break and I felt so very lucky I wasn’t there too, since they got stuck in the ice storm and couldn’t get back.
posted by Laura on 12-9-2009 at 8:11 am
@Armauld Yes!
posted by Bucephalus on 12-9-2009 at 9:28 am
29.2 inches of snow in Baltimore in February of 2003 – the largest one-time snowfall in city history. I remember it well because it occurred right after my girlfriend (now wife) and I started dating…
posted by Kevin P. on 12-9-2009 at 9:31 am
I remember the Storm of the Century– it was the first time we saw snow since moving to Pensacola, FL from MN a few years earlier. We thought for sure my mom was joking when she woke us up that morning to see the snow before it melted. It lasted until mid-afternoon. We made several tiny snowmen then used them as ammunition for a snowball fight!
posted by LadyBugg on 12-9-2009 at 9:48 am
I was living in Hawaii during the storm of the century. It was brutal! :) I do remember being in Hawaii for the coldest recorded day ever… I think it was 54 degrees. :)
posted by Marty on 12-9-2009 at 9:49 am
The Chicago Blizzard of 1979 was the one that got the then-mayor voted out of office because of snow removal problems. Since that storm, the streets are cleared within hours of even a little bit of snow.
Personally, my family and I were at a museum that day, and had problems getting home because of public transit issues.
posted by Walter on 12-9-2009 at 9:49 am
The ’78 storm must have been really bad. My mom will still talk about it to this day. My sister was born in the middle of it.
posted by Christina on 12-9-2009 at 10:15 am
@ Lola
Wow BGSU cancelled classes for a whole week!!! Funny they wouldn’t even consider it during the 4 years I was there from ’97 to ’01. I distinctly remember calling the Dean’s office during a Level 2 or 3 snow emergency and getting laughed at. Kids in Ohio get used to going to school in the snow, a day off is never a given!
posted by JW on 12-9-2009 at 10:41 am
I remember my sister had a t-shirt “Leapin’ Lizard, what a Blizzard of ’78″ It was pretty bad in Michigan too.
posted by Dave on 12-9-2009 at 11:18 am
I remember the Halloween Blizzard! It’s the first thing I thought of when I saw this article. I was only 4, but I was in kindergarten, and I was supposed to be a princess that year, so my parents put my dress over my snowsuit and took me down the block. The drifts covered our first-floor windows by the end of it, and we didn’t have school for nearly a week. We had to tack extra school days onto the end of the year to make up for it.
posted by AJ on 12-9-2009 at 11:18 am
Family has told me about this one… Mt. Shasta CA (old ski area) – 103 inches of snow from Feb. 15–17, 1959. This is both the United States and the world’s greatest two-day snowfall on record.
posted by Paul on 12-9-2009 at 11:29 am
I was 8 and living in the suburbs of Buffalo, NY when the infamous Blizzard of ’77 struck. It paralyzed the entire city and the surrounding area for days.
My father, like many others, got stuck at work. He and his co-workers ended up being “rescued” by the local fire department who came on snowmobiles(the only method of transporation available at the time).
We were without power/heat for what seemed like an eternity. My mother, sisters and I all slept in the same bed just to keep warm. We used a fondue pot and sterno to cook and heat water.
When the weather cleared enough for us to go outside, we were faced with snowdrifts high enough to cover the second story windows of our house. Abandoned cars were buried so deep in snow that we were walking on car roofs as we went down the street. I still have a picture of me and my sisters standing on top of a snowdrift, touching the bottom of a traffic light!
posted by Eli on 12-9-2009 at 11:59 am
I had just recalled the Blizzard of 91 on my facebook yesterday. Nebraska didn’t get as much as Iowa and Minnesota but they postponed Halloween for 3 days. I lived in an old house with 18 inch thick native limestone walls. We had a kids take refuge there since the power was out and other houses were losing heat faster. But we didn’t have any working flashlight so my 13 year old younger sister got the “brillant” idea to make an oil lamp in a coffe mug with hot oil treaments and a tampon. It sort of worked. ruined the mug and was really smokey.
posted by Lewen on 12-9-2009 at 12:00 pm
I remember the Iowa Blizzard on April 8th-10th 1973. I worked in a nursing home…I went to work the Sat. at the beginning of the storm. No one could get IN to relieve us, and none of us could get OUT. There were only four (4) of us to do it all!! Luckily It was a forty (40) bed facility. The four of us had to take care of patients, do the cleaning, the laundry, and cook for us all!! I finally made it out on Tues. am!! talk about tired!!
posted by Mary Ann on 12-9-2009 at 12:26 pm
I also remember the Halloween Blizzard. I went trick or treating as a Minnesotan (basically in all my winter duds, with a shovel). A lot of people gave me big handfuls of candy because I was one of just a very few trick or treaters to show up at people’s doors. I think we got two hours off from school the next morning, but no snow day.
posted by Julia on 12-9-2009 at 12:47 pm
I was in grade school for the blizzard of ’77. Here’s what I remember most: watching the news the night before to see if school was open, drifts that covered our first floor windows, digging tunnels to play in, and six school days added to the end of the school year because it was closed so long. Since the school had six snow days budgeted, we must have been out of school for at least 12 days.
As an adult, I saw a documentary about the storm. If it had been over the ocean instead of Lake Erie, it would have been classified a category 3 hurricane. Lots of snow fell, but the winds were the worst of it. A tractor trailor on the turnpike was completely covered in a matter of minutes by the drifting snow. Don’t you just love Ohio weather?
posted by Kelly on 12-9-2009 at 12:48 pm
I live in MA and we have video of the morning after the April Fool’s day storm…it was horrible. I’ve never seen so much snow in my life, and it’s blizzarding outside as I type this!
posted by Alice on 12-9-2009 at 1:17 pm
I remember the storm of the century–it was the only time as a child I got to sled in Kentucky as a child. But, my grandparents got married in December of 1945 in Buffalo, NY and they had such a huge blizzard that none of their guests could leave. They ended up staying at my great-grandparents’ house for almost a week after the wedding until trains started running again.
posted by Rachel on 12-9-2009 at 1:27 pm
Hi,
I am a producer at the PBS station in Hartford, CT. We’re making a documentary about the Blizzard of 78. If any of you were in Connecticut during the Blizzard and have a story to tell (or, photos/video to share!) please contact me at (860)275-7253 or blizzard78@cptv.org.
If you know of anyone who has a great story of being stuck in a car or walking through the snow, please let them know that we’re looking for stories. We are eager to document the storm!
Here’s our call for footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5cobsEY-70&feature=player_embedded
Thanks!
posted by Elizabeth at CPTV on 12-9-2009 at 1:32 pm
I was living in an apartment complex in Delaware when the Storm Of The Century hit in March 1993, and I remember it very well. The snow started around 3:00 AM on Saturday and lasted through the early evening hours, accumulating 10 to 11 inches. Then there was a short break, followed by an overnight rainfall that left a one-inch thick sheet of ice on top of the snow for Sunday morning. Snow shovels were useless, but my aluminum softball bat was great for breaking up the ice, which was then removed by shovel-wielding neighbors. I also helped push eleven cars out of their parking spots that Sunday.
posted by wboenig on 12-9-2009 at 1:43 pm
I was in Northern Iowa for the “Halloween” Blizzard and remember that the town officially canceled Halloween. I don’t know if anyone ventured out, it didn’t seem possible, everything was completely buried in ice and snow.
posted by Leah on 12-9-2009 at 3:05 pm
Snowed-in in Madison, WI right now. Reading these make me feel much better about the 4 hours or so of shoveling I have to do tonight. Thank you.
posted by Luke on 12-9-2009 at 3:18 pm
The Storm of the Century is a storm that I will never forget- probably because it’s the only major snow storm to ever hit my hometown in south Alabama. As little Southern children, we didn’t own snow boots or really a whole lot of cold weather gear in general, so we made do by covering out shoes with Wal-Mart bags so they woudn’t get too wet in the snow. The Blizzard of ’93 proved to be epic for many of us Southern children, as it was the first snowfall many of us had ever seen.
posted by Ashton on 12-9-2009 at 3:19 pm
I clearly remember the Storm of the Century. As Southern children, many of us didn’t have proper snow gear, so in order to prevent our feet from getting too wet too quickly, we covered our shoes and hands with Wal-Mart bags. My brother and I played outside for what felt like hours. The Blizzard of ’93 was a blast for those of us too young to worry about broken pipes and the utter lack of snow plows.
posted by Ashton on 12-9-2009 at 3:32 pm
I remember the blizzard of 93 school was out for quite a while after the blizzard past we had to make up some of the days we missed of school by going to school on a Saturday. Two Saturdays actually
posted by Kari on 12-9-2009 at 4:02 pm
I live in Madison, Wisconsin, so I’m pretty used to big snow storms. This one today (about 18 inches so far since Monday, about 14 in the last 24 hours) isn’t even the biggest one I remember. I wanted to chip in a slightly different story.
It certainly wasn’t the biggest snow storm ever, but I can remember getting about 8 or 10 inches of snow in 1991 or 1992. The remarkable thing about it? It was the second week of May.
posted by Steve on 12-9-2009 at 4:54 pm
March of 2003 in Colorado. We got 45+ inches of wet snow during a 2-day blizzard. Roofs and gas station canopies collapsed all over the place. The state was at a standstill for 4 days.
I remember on the fourth day trudging out of my apartment with snow shoes on to try and get some desperately needed food from a nearby grocery store. The grocery store, and every store in that shopping center was closed – except for one. The liquor store was open, packed, and the parking lot was full of 4-wheel drives!
posted by Jamie on 12-9-2009 at 5:08 pm
I too was in college during the 1993 blizzard. For some reason, I had agreed to spend Spring Break in Conneautville, PA and then got stuck there when the blizzard hit. I”m going to go with “least fun Spring Break ever”.
There was quite a big snow storm in Maryland back in 2002/2003. It took the snow trucks a couple days to get around to all the counties – it was the only time I could actually walk to the grocery store because the highway couldn’t be cleared. My upstairs neighbor also asked me if I wanted to have “blizzard sex”. *sigh*
posted by Logan on 12-10-2009 at 4:46 am
Oh man, I totally remember the storm of the century. I’m from Alabama, and it is literally the ONLY time I’ve ever been in enough snow to make a “real” snowman. Granted, I was only 6 years old at the time, but the impression was so great that I very vividly remember this happening.
posted by Stephanie on 12-10-2009 at 12:34 pm
i had just turned 10 during the storm of the century, when i woke up to snow everywhere outside. i remember my dad commenting that the previous night while he was at work that it was lightning, thundering and snowing, which caused much concern, because it was bizarre. Being from GA, that blizzard was the most snow i’ve ever seen.
posted by bonnim on 12-10-2009 at 12:43 pm
How did the Blizzard of ’77 not make the list?
I was far from Buffalo at the time (where of course it’s squalling like nobody’s business at the moment after being bright sunshine 20 minutes ago), but the legends live on, from West Chippewa on down, of the Big One:
Basically, the wind blew a pile of snow the entire length and width of Lake Erie into this end of the lake. Dozens of cars were never found.
posted by Ray on 12-10-2009 at 1:43 pm
There was a link in that last post of mine which got stripped. It’s the tunnel under the main runway at the airport:
http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/picts/tunnel.jpg
posted by Ray on 12-10-2009 at 1:45 pm
I remember the Halloween blizzard- my family lived in southern Minnesota at the time. The thing that really stands out in my memory is that my parents wouldn’t take my siblings and I out trick-or-treating (I was only 6). We got really mad when some college kids showed up at our door and my mom gave them almost all of the candy because they were the only ones out that night!
posted by Suz on 12-10-2009 at 3:34 pm
The blizzard of 66 was huge in NYC. Especially since the city didn’t have many working snow plows. We got around two feet of snow and had no school for a week. I remember there was no fresh milk till about Wednesday (I think the snow started early Sunday).
My father talked about a big storm in the late 40s, that really socked NYC. Not sure of the details on that one.
posted by Stew on 12-10-2009 at 5:53 pm
I also remember the Iowa Blizzard of April 8th-10th 1973, having grown up in Storm Lake, IA (a fitting town name – don’t ya think). It began with ice. When it was done, we had received 17.5″ of hard pack drifted snow. The snow itself was not really the issue. The problem was the wind and the drifting that resulted. Both the front and back doors of the house were sealed shut by snow and ice. So we had to break the glass out on the storm door to get outside. Once outside, there where drifts up to the roofline and we walked over the top of the 6′ high school chain link fence, across the street, with ease. Finally, I recall that the city snow plows were unable to clear our street (on the north edge of town) and we had to wait 3 days for a county DOT snow plow to come in. From a 9-year-old’s perspective, this was the *best* storm ever!
posted by Milton on 12-19-2009 at 11:36 am
storm of 1966 and I have seen a few and in my plowed in many.
We had no warning it was coming which made it much worst.
posted by Don on 1-8-2010 at 9:11 am
I’m practically shocked you didn’t list the Blizzard of ’78 in the Northeast. That storm eclipses most on this list for sheer ferocity and strength. I grew up north of Boston and we got FOUR FEET! And that was on top of a previous storm just a few days earlier in which we got 18 inches; so you can imagine the amount of snow on the ground and the snow drifts! Coupled with hurricane force winds (Cape Cod winds were 100mph!) and blinding heavy snow, no one moved for 2 weeks after the 36 hour storm, literally. The city never shut down like that before or after, as of course, we’ve become far better prepared for that nowadays. We’ve had some storms that almost rival 78, but it didn’t scare many. But I’d guarantee if another blizzard came around like that, it would freak out all of New England once more.
posted by Andres on 1-25-2010 at 1:42 pm
Jan 7, 1995 – Central Pennsylvanis (and probably other areas) got 39 inches a few days after 5-6 had fallen. Less than a week later it warmed up and rained, causing overflow of the Susquehanna and flooding of Harrisburg
The Blizzards (plural) of Feb 1978 – there were two about 10 days apart
posted by Tom on 2-6-2010 at 8:32 am
Rochester, NY – blizzard of 1966 – I will never forget. I worked M-F and normally did food shopping on Saturdays. But for some reason I did not go Saturday but since Blue Laws were in effect, could not shop Sunday so had planned on grocery shopping Monday night. The storm hit Sunday night while we slept with no warning whatsoever. We work Monday to many black windows, some with black in a line and the sky agove the line – could not figure it out but soon realized it was snow half way up the living room windows at an angle to the gutters. Our doors opened outwards and we could not get out. We had to climb to the 2nd floor, open the window and get out on the porch roof. We’d slide down the snow on an aluminum disk/sled from the 2nd floor by had no where to go – 4 days to dig the roads out. Snow was packed so hard we’d sink only 8″ when we walked across the snow at a depth of 8′. We were basically trapped and existed on 1/2 gallon milk, 1 loaf of bread and pancake mix until Thursday when the National Guard came with payloaders scooping snow, putting in dump trucks and then hauling snow away via the railway miles away. Then in a few days when streets were dug out, we dug tunnel to the front door so we could go outside. Streets were so strange – walls of snow at least 8′ straight up – one lane wide – you could not see street signs, landmarks – just driving down a road with snow 8′ straight up on each side – hard to figure out where you were – we did not lose electricity nor heating (oil). I’ll never forget it. It was a great time – lots of fun.
posted by clayetta montee on 2-10-2010 at 8:38 pm
The Blizzard of 1978 in eastern Massachusetts was the worst by far. The snow began on Monday morning and soon was falling at 3 to 4 inches per hour. By late afternoon, winds were blowing at 60 to 75 mph. The snow stopped on Wednesday morning, leaving huge drifts of snow. All the while, I was trapped in an office in Norwood, where, fortunately, the cook in the Company’s cafeteria was also trapped. It was illegal to drive in Suffolk County (Boston) until the following Tuesday. After the snow stopped, I walked down the middle of Route 1A from Norwood to Dedha, where my parents lived. I stayed with them until Friday morning, when I walked out to I-95, where it was legal for utility workers to drive. I joined about five other people for a 10 mile drive to Route 16 in Wellesley. It was a bright, sunny day, and people were simply more friendly than I had ever seen. After a thirty minute week, I joined my wife and our one-year-old baby, whose first birthday I had missed. Our house was on the border of Norfolk County and Middlesex County (where it was legal to drive.) After hiring a front-end loader to move snow from our driveway, we ate out that first night. On Monday, two fully-loaded trains passed by the Wellesley Hills station before a third train stopped. I found a few inches of space in which to stand. No tickets were punched by the conductor that morning. I arrived in my office in Copley Square at 10:30 AM, had lunch, and grew tired of listening to others’ stories. Just like you, dear reader, are growing tired of these stories.
posted by James Conley on 2-11-2010 at 7:56 am
Yes, the Ice Storm of 98 was incredible.
My family lived out in the Maine woods–I was in high school and didn’t even bother finding out if school was canceled for a week, because it was just impossible to travel that far safely. Radio announcers were taking calls from people asking neighbors to check in on specific folk they knew were elderly or alone. We could hear the weight of the ice breaking trees in the forest, and I remember finally driving in to town 9 days after the worst of it with my dad. I will never forget the trains of emergency trucks from other states, lines of people waiting for generators, and how everything looked like it had been bowed down by some kind of bomb blast. Every tree seemed flattened, yet it all sparkled under inches of icy coating.
posted by Phoebe on 2-11-2010 at 9:57 am
Chicago’s blizzard of 1967 – I don’t really remember it, I was 8 months old. It crippled the city and snow removal was a hot button political issue ever since. As another poster mentioned the Blizzard of ’79 in Chicago and the lack of quick snow removal helped the mayor’s challenger win the election.
More recently, holiday blizzard Dec-Jan 2006-07 in Denver, CO where we now live. Four feet of snow in 2 weeks! It was great though, because our family was visiting and they got snowed in – we had a blast!
posted by Becky on 2-11-2010 at 11:58 am
Yeah, I think it was early 1978 in South Bend, Indiana; they brought in tanks to push enough snow so the plows could operate, and they loaded the snow into dump trucks and dumped it in the river since there wasn’t anywhere to put it. We had fun jumping off the roof of our 2-story house.
posted by Paul on 2-11-2010 at 3:59 pm
Paul, my family lives in the South Bend area, and my parents have told similar stories. My mom talks about seven foot snow drifts.
The worst snow I can remember happened in 1998, when I was in Kindergarten. I don’t know exactly how much snow we got, but we actually got to leave school early that day.
posted by Cait on 2-11-2010 at 4:47 pm
I was surprised not to see the Blizzard of 1978. I was in high school, but we had family friends who worked in Boston. They were stuck in cars and buses on Route 3 trying to come home. I was supposed to meet my Dad in Florida (visiting family – it happened right before February vacation). He was stuck in Florida and I was stuck in Plymouth, MA shoveling out motel rooms. All the first floor seaside windows (and protecting wood) were broken and rocks, sand, and snow were inside the rooms.
posted by Jeanne Govoni on 2-19-2010 at 12:18 pm