April 4, 1987 Snow

[Nic]

Anyone have any data on this storm? I saw somewhere that Columbus, OH got 12 inches of snow during the storm.

[ineedsnow]

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KOSU/1987/4/4/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA&theprefset=SHOWMETAR&theprefvalue=1

Anyone have any data on this storm? I saw somewhere that Columbus, OH got 12 inches of snow during the storm.

[Nic]

One funny thing is on October 4th of the same year cincinnati had a early snowstorm. Looking at the historical data, I was not born till 1993,

[WinterWxLuvr]

Anyone have any data on this storm? I saw somewhere that Columbus, OH got 12 inches of snow during the storm.

I can give you a personal experience. It had been pretty mild preceding that event. I was in my first year of teaching, and was helping coach baseball. We had had several nice days of outdoor practice. This was all in swva, elevations in the local towns ranging from about 1700 feet to 2500 feet. This event was very elevation dependant.

The snow had been forecast for a day or two. I accompanied my grandmother to the funeral home on that Thursday night. When we came out, it had started snowing. By Friday morning it was snowing heavily. We missed school that day. I have old polaroids taken on that Friday afternoon showing my dog with snow over his back. We had about 14 inches then. The awesome thing about the storm was that it snowed until early Sunday afternoon. We ended up with near 30 inches and that was in one of the lower elevation towns.

http://www.wkyt.com/.../101616818.html

Snowstorm - April 2-5, 1987 - An extremely heavy late season snowstorm caused extensive problems in southeast Kentucky. The snow began falling mid-morning Thursday, April 2. The snow remained light through Thursday evening with 1 to 2 inches accumulation reported mainly along the Virginia-Kentucky border. By dawn, Friday April 3, four inches of snow had fallen over the mountains of far southeast Kentucky. The heavy snow continued and spread northward over eastern Kentucky, and by Friday evening accumulation totals ranged from 7 inches at the Jackson weather office to over 18 inches in the Kentucky counties along the Virginia border. The storm had virtually paralyzed southeast Kentucky by the evening of April 3, 1987. The heavy snow had broken many power lines, resulting in more than 18,000 residents without electricity, some until Monday April 6. Emergency shelters were set up at several locations for those without heat. Roads were very hazardous, and even impassable in some areas due to downed trees. A second surge of heavy snow fell Saturday afternoon, April 4^th, through Sunday morning April 5. (The Jackson weather office reported a storm total of 17.8 inches.) By noon April 5^th, the storm system had buried most of southeast Kentucky under 1 to 3 feet of snow, with the highest totals in Letcher and Pike Counties. Gusty northwest winds produced considerable blowing and drifting, with reports of drifts more than 10 feet deep in parts of Letcher County.

I lived in the county bordering Letcher on the Va side, Wise co.

There is probably more you could find. I think the NC mountains were hit hard too. I know of a firsthand report out of Boone NC of the snow piles along streets and highways being around 8 feet high. One other interesting note, we played a baseball game outdoors the following weekend.

[Grothar of Herndon]

I can give you a personal experience. It had been pretty mild preceding that event. I was in my first year of teaching, and was helping coach baseball. We had had several nice days of outdoor practice. This was all in swva, elevations in the local towns ranging from about 1700 feet to 2500 feet. This event was very elevation dependant.

The snow had been forecast for a day or two. I accompanied my grandmother to the funeral home on that Thursday night. When we came out, it had started snowing. By Friday morning it was snowing heavily. We missed school that day. I have old polaroids taken on that Friday afternoon showing my dog with snow over his back. We had about 14 inches then. The awesome thing about the storm was that it snowed until early Sunday afternoon. We ended up with near 30 inches and that was in one of the lower elevation towns.

http://www.wkyt.com/.../101616818.html

I lived in Wise and we had like 3 ft snow. It was an unbelievable snow storm. University of VA at Wise was closed that Friday and following Monday and Tuesday. They had front-end loaders to move the snow once it stopped.

[vortex95]

April 3-5, 1987

       A large, slow moving low pressure produced very heavy snows

        over the Appalachian Region starting on the 3rd and continuing

        into the 5th.  60 inches fell at Newfound Gap in western North

        Carolina -- the largest single storm snowfall in the state's

        history.  Up to 36 inches was reported in southeastern

        Kentucky.  The total of 25 inches at Charleston, West Virginia

        easily surpassed its previous record for the entire month of

        April of 5.9 inches.  The 20.6 inch total at Akron, Ohio

        established an all-time record for that location.  Interstate

        40 was closed by snow for the first time since it was opened

        20 years ago.  This storm also dumped heavy snow in central

        and northeastern Alabama.  Never before had a snowfall

        blanketed Alabama in April.  10 inches fell at Valley Head, 9

        inches piled up at Fort Payne, and Birmingham recorded 6

        inches.  Lightning and thunder accompanied the snow in some

        areas while snow flurries fell as far south as Mobile.  This

        was the first snow ever reported in the month of April in

        Mobile since records began in 1872.  The storm became known

        unofficially as the "Dogwood Snowstorm" in the state.

[sojitodd]

Anyone have any data on this storm? I saw somewhere that Columbus, OH got 12 inches of snow during the storm.

It was a fun storm. There was a very big difference in Columbus from east to west regarding snowfall. Port Columbus got the 12 inches, but only 8 miles southwest of there I got around 8, and the far western parts of Franklin county got much less than that. It did not stay around long either of course.

[Nic]

I am surprised I did not find much about this storm on the internet, you would think such a big storm so late in the year would have more information on it.

[Lee]

That storm was an amazing one to say the least! My area averaged 18-36 " on the level in valley locations. It varied in various parts of the lawn due to warm ground Temps. The Temp. had been in the 60's and 70's for almost 2 solid weeks prior.

The snow began here around 1 p.m. Thursday as a RN/SN mix below 1500ft that quickly changed to all snow and continued until just after 1 on Sunday afternoon.

I remember a neighbor having an old junk car that sat near the north facing side of his home( little radiational heat) having about 30" on it! My average lawn measurement was 20"( most measured as could have been more during times I was gone/working)). My elevation was 1,550 ft.

There would have been more had the ground been cold as I remember reaching down thru the snow and it being wet at the ground. So, no doubt, melting occured at the bottom much of the time. . The most I remember of being reported officially was @ High Knob in Wise County; ele; 4,223 ft. 54 inches!

[WestMichigan]

24+ in south eastern Ohio. It was the wettest, heaviest snow I have seen that amounted to more than a few inches. It was 36 - 38 degrees for almost the entire duration of the event.

[N. OF PIKE]

24+ in south eastern Ohio. It was the wettest, heaviest snow I have seen that amounted to more than a few inches. It was 36 - 38 degrees for almost the entire duration of the event.

seems unlikely

that is a very impressive total

very fascinating storm in regard to the variations in snowfall throughout the area....amazing storm wow

[HighTechEE]

I was living in Dayton during this storm which actually was then 2nd storm to hit in less than a week in our area, we got a wet 4" or so on the last day of March, then about 9" on April 4th. My brother was in a small town called Nelsonville in SE Ohio near Athens and he picked up 18" of heavy wet snow that day with lots of thundersnow as well! You can use Wunderground's Weather History took look up data for this event. This site show just under a foot on the ground for Athens on that day: http://www.almanac.com/weather/history/OH/Athens/1987-04-04

[buckeye]

I was at WVU in Morgantown, WV. I remember that very well. I recall it happened on a weekend and it was an incredibly long duration event. It started friday and ended sunday (similar to PDII). Can't recall how much we ended up with but had to be easily close to 20". Back at home in Columbus it was the 24 hr snowfall record until PDII....and then of course that got crushed March'08.

[Hoosier]

[Nic]

Wow that is really sloooow moving. Thanks for the replys, I wish that was the weather map tommorow. lol

I think I would cry If I saw that storm. lol

[CoraopolisWx]

Actually came across this thread online. Lol

Here in Pittsburgh, I remember going to bed Friday night with snow and a WSW(forecast was 10-15"), but waking up to rain and a flood watch.

Very disappointing to a 9 year old who had never seen a major storm before, and it wouldn't be until 12/8/92 before we finally got a major storm.

[Amped]

[JBG]

On 1/14/2012 at 0:37 PM, Nic said:

Anyone have any data on this storm? I saw somewhere that Columbus, OH got 12 inches of snow during the storm.

New York was on the warm side of the storm. A major bridge on I-90 in upstate New York, the New York State Thruway was washed out.

[Bronte]

I grew up in Big Stone Gap,Va. and I can remember thinking just a couple of days before it hit us that spring was finally arriving.Then out of nowhere around midday on Friday it started to snow and it poured for 3 long days.But having grown-up in the mountains of SW.VA we didn't think that about it.I actually can remember going to my best friends house to spend that Friday night with her and by early Saturday it was still pouring the snow.My then boyfriend showed up in his 1974 Chevy Vega station wagon(lol) to pick me up and drive me the 4 miles back to my house.I can remember walking out in her front yard and the snow came up past my waist.I am 5'3 so yes I might bot be that tall but that was some deep snow.I was afraid that we would not make it to my house but we did and the funny thing was that all along the road sides we were passing these fancy 4 wheel drive trucks in ditches where they had lost control and ran off the road.I will say this much that little beat up Vega did not slide one time it must have been good karma or something.I can also remember letting my dog out and I could not find him until he finally jumped high enough so that I could go out and retrieve him.I was 19 years old when this storm hit us and it wasn't but a year later that I moved away from those beautiful mountains.I now live in South Carolina and I am always telling people how much I miss the snow and they just look at me like I am crazy because down here if a snowstorm like this hit us the entire city would shut down and the national Guard would have to be called in to rescue us..