Blizzard of 1978

[Chris L]

Case Study of the Performance:

http://www.weatheranswer.com/public/blizzard_1978.pdf

[HoarfrostHubb]

Case Study of the Performance:

http://www.weatheran...izzard_1978.pdf

Where did the loop come from?

Interesting paper. Did not know there were usable models back then. Works better than the NAM

[Clinch Leatherwood]

Where did the loop come from?

Interesting paper. Did not know there were usable models back then. Works better than the NAM

Dave one of the keys to me, and the joke in comparing that storm in 1978 to all but 4/97 is this:

2.86" of QPF brought 27" of snow. This wasn't one of those 1-1.5" 30" snowstorms with super high ratios.

That's why when people have a hard time believing the 50" totals in northern RI and interior SE MA I laugh. They stayed pretty cold for most of the event and had 2.5 to 3.5" of QPF.

Boston got 27" on 2.86" of QPF, Providence got 27" on 1.37" of QPF. Keep in mind also that eastern MA added another 1/4 to 1/2" of QPF after those 48 hour totals.

Right between Boston and Providence where there were both high ratios and high QPF...was insane. Some day I'll dig out the pictures.

Imagine these 25-30" snowstorms in CT with 3" liquid equivalents...

[HoarfrostHubb]

Dave one of the keys to me, and the joke in comparing that storm in 1978 to all but 4/97 is this:

2.86" of QPF brought 27" of snow. This wasn't one of those 1-1.5" 30" snowstorms with super high ratios.

That's why when people have a hard time believing the 50" totals in northern RI and interior SE MA I laugh. They stayed pretty cold for most of the event and had 2.5 to 3.5" of QPF.

Boston got 27" on 2.86" of QPF, Providence got 27" on 1.37" of QPF. Keep in mind also that eastern MA added another 1/4 to 1/2" of QPF after those 48 hour totals.

Right between Boston and Providence where there were both high ratios and high QPF...was insane. Some day I'll dig out the pictures.

Imagine these 25-30" snowstorms in CT with 3" liquid equivalents...

Yeah, I was reading that part, as well. 2.5"+ qpf is sick. We will get one again... maybe not IMBY (too far inland?), but SE Mass will

PVD ratios are off the hook for that event. Boston was fooked

I think I got 40-45" or so in Foxboro as a lad... no way to know now...

[OSUmetstud]

The 54" of some reports in Woonsocket is pretty unlikely. I doubt there were high ratios during that storm there...winds were very strong and the low cut pretty close. 38" is generally accepted and seems reasonable. Paul in North Milford measured 36" in Franklin, MA during 78, also.

That PVD water equivalent honestly seems like nonsense...20:1?...ehhh

[ORH_wxman]

The 54" of some reports in Woonsocket is pretty unlikely. I doubt there were high ratios during that storm there...winds were very strong and the low cut pretty close. 38" is generally accepted and seems reasonable. Paul in North Milford measured 36" in Franklin, MA during 78, also.

That PVD water equivalent honestly seems like nonsense...20:1?...ehhh

Most mets around here do not believe the 50" totals, though I'm sure there were whole neighborhoods that had a lot of 50" depths because of insane drifting. I think the highest official total in that storm is 39"

[HoarfrostHubb]

Most mets around here do not believe the 50" totals, though I'm sure there were whole neighborhoods that had a lot of 50" depths because of insane drifting. I think the highest official total in that storm is 39"

What do you think the highest would be using the 6 hour clean off the board method?

I bet places had 45"

10x the impact of April Fools

[DavisStraight]

The 54" of some reports in Woonsocket is pretty unlikely. I doubt there were high ratios during that storm there...winds were very strong and the low cut pretty close. 38" is generally accepted and seems reasonable. Paul in North Milford measured 36" in Franklin, MA during 78, also.

That PVD water equivalent honestly seems like nonsense...20:1?...ehhh

Back then the amount of financial assistance you got was dependant on the amount of snow you got, it was in their best interest to inflate the totals, they could get away with it with a storm like that with insane drifting.

My town officially had 27" which I think was too low but who knows, drifting was incredible.

[Chris L]

Actually the highest total for Blizzard of '78 was 43.7 inches at Ipswich, MA.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ussc/USSCAppController?action=extremes&state=19

[ORH_wxman]

Actually the highest total for Blizzard of '78 was 43.7 inches at Ipswich, MA.

http://www.ncdc.noaa...tremes&state=19

I forgot about the Ipswich total. I know about it though now that you brought it up. Most people don't believe that one either. They had some ridiculous snow totals for years between that storm and the mid 90s. Always higher than everyone else.

[Clinch Leatherwood]

About 3" of QPF fell in Boston, I think storm total it was a little higher, something like 3.15" Between Boston and Providence there was a zone of near 3" QPF but with higher ratios the further wsw you got. There was also a very strong banding/OES signature as I absolutely remember it snowing heavily for 30 minutes, getting lighter, snowing heavily for 45 minutes etc over the last 15-20 hours.

I've never doubted that someone in that region got 40 or maybe even 50" of snow but then again I lived there through it and the 2 weeks it took to get our lives back.. The chances that Boston just happened to measure the maximum QPF in that event is near zero,

This was a photo I'd found online from a few towns west. It pretty well details how every car in every neighborhood of easton was...they were gone with even the roofs covered. Didn't matter which yard, which car or which location. For the most part we had to use the broom handle jammed into the snow until we heard a ping at which point we knew we hit metal and would start diggin. The landscape was so homogenous...so white, so flat it was tough to get a feel for where anything was.

I'll never see that in my lifetime again. I will make an effort to get some of the film rolls soon. The hood I lived in had just been built a year or two earlier. It was houses, some shrubs and sapplings. So the entire thing was just a moonscape of snow 4+ feet deep in all directions. It was nuts.

[Chris L]

About 3" of QPF fell in Boston, I think storm total it was a little higher, something like 3.15" Between Boston and Providence there was a zone of near 3" QPF but with higher ratios the further wsw you got. There was also a very strong banding/OES signature as I absolutely remember it snowing heavily for 30 minutes, getting lighter, snowing heavily for 45 minutes etc over the last 15-20 hours.

I've never doubted that someone in that region got 40 or maybe even 50" of snow but then again I lived there through it and the 2 weeks it took to get our lives back.. The chances that Boston just happened to measure the maximum QPF in that event is near zero,

This was a photo I'd found online from a few towns west. It pretty well details how every car in every neighborhood of easton was...they were gone with even the roofs covered. Didn't matter which yard, which car or which location. For the most part we had to use the broom handle jammed into the snow until we heard a ping at which point we knew we hit metal and would start diggin. The landscape was so homogenous...so white, so flat it was tough to get a feel for where anything was.

I'll never see that in my lifetime again. I will make an effort to get some of the film rolls soon. The hood I lived in had just been built a year or two earlier. It was houses, some shrubs and sapplings. So the entire thing was just a moonscape of snow 4+ feet deep in all directions. It was nuts.

Messenger, that sounds like the Blizzard of 2005 for the Cape, which had 40". Which you were at Segamore Beach, I think in 05, but '05 doesn't compare for that.

[Chris L]

I do think someplace in '78 got 40-42", its not out of the question.

But with the 6 hour method.... oh yes, 40 plus easily.

[ORH_wxman]

I do think someplace in '78 got 40-42", its not out of the question.

But with the 6 hour method.... oh yes, 40 plus easily.

Yes I think there were probably 40+ amounts....but 50 is unlikely. It was a tough storm to measure, but you'd think there would be some official totals near 50 if they were actually present, but there isn't. Regardless it still remains the most impressive storm to hit SNE in the past century.

[Hambone]

I was 25, working in Waltham and living in West Bridgewater during the blizzard. I left Waltham at 3 and drove home... a 6 hour ride to go 30 miles. I was literally the last car off of 128 on the southbound side,

I was driving an MGB (noted snow machine) and a guy I worked with from Brockton was driving a Datsun PU truck loaded with rug cleaning equipment he used in his side job, It took us about 3 hours to get from Waltham to the rest area on 128, where we sat for a full hour with no movement,

I got out of my car, went back to Bob and asked him if he wanted to leave his truck and get in with me because I was going to pull onto the breakdown lane and try to make it around the jam, He declined because he didn't want to abandon his equipment, but said he'd follow me,

We pulled off to the side and I started driving through about 8-10 inches of snow, sometimes in the breakdown lane, sometimes on the shoulder. Where 128 makes the uphill left sweep towards 95 there were several tractor trailers jack knifed trapping everyone behind them. The breakdown lane was blocked as well, but the MG was small and had tons of torque so I gunned it off the shoulder and somehow power slid around the jam and got back onto a suddenly open and very dark 128,

I kept gunning it through the snow until I got up to the top of the hill then looked behind me and there were no other vehicles to be seen. A week later, when we got back to work, I asked Bob what happened. He told me he made it as far as about 100 yards from the jack knife but got stuck on the shoulder and couldn't go any further. He got rescued by the state police on snowmoniles around 10 and spent the week living in a shelter at the Morse Shoe factory in Stoughton with a couple hundred of his closest friends.

It took me another hour to pick my way down to Brocktonn on unplowed roads with abandoned cars scattered around and visability at whiteout to maybe 100 feet at times. I knew I was at rte 27 when I could "feel" the glow in the east from the Westgate Mall lights.

I had an aunt who lived a mile form the mall so I decided to get off there in case the side roads were impassable. I had to get out of the car to locate the off ramp and knock the snow down a bit so I could get onto the ramp. Once i got onto the ramp it had been blown totally clear of snow by th ewind. I got up to 27 and right behind a huge state plow that I followed all the way to Main street.

I should note that once I got going on 128 I saw no other moving vehicles and on 24 I only saw one vehicle heading northbound.

Once on Main street the plow headed north and I continued south through deserted street with a foot of snow in places and nothing in others. I decided to head to my parents house instead of my apartment (better chance of food and beer in the fridge) and somehow porpoised my way through the drifts on totally unplowed backroads to their driveway. I could only get the MGB about 2 or 3 feet off the road ddown their 200' long drive because the snow was so deep.

My parents lived on the top of a hill with open fields to the north and east and a tall hedgerow blocking the northside of the driveway. The next day we had drifts behind the hedges over 10 feet deep blocking the driveway. The cars were completely swallowed. A drift ran from the top of the roof of the house off the back to the ground in one area, blocking windows. It took me better than two days to hand dig the driveway out. My MG had 4 feet of snow on the roof more on the hood and trunk.

It was hard to get an accurate measurement of depth because of the drifts, but everywhere we went in the yard where there was no extreme drifting the snow was a good 6 to 10 inches deeper than the yardstick we had. We figured 40 to 42", which was astounding to us, but seemed to make sense when we started hearing local reports of 40-50 inches in the swath from Weymouth down to Providence.

My father worked for the phone company and had a civil defense clearance, so he could legally drive around once they got us plowed out (only 1 lane wide until the national guard cleared our road later in the week). He had to get down to the scituate marshfield area to check on line problems and came home with dozens of lobsters that had washed up on the beaches and froze..

We ate a lot of lobster that week.

I could go on, but enough...

It was the most amazing weather experience of my life.

[OSUmetstud]

There's just about no way you could have used the 6 hr method for that blizzard in the hardest hit areas...too much drifting to take board measurements.

[Clinch Leatherwood]

There's just about no way you could have used the 6 hr method for that blizzard in the hardest hit areas...too much drifting to take board measurements.

For us it had nothing to do with the board, we just didn't measure that way back then. We were in survival mode, my parents wouldn't let us open the door as we had no power most of the time. Utility companies didn't prune like they do now.

There were multiple 50+ reports and NOAA even has a graphic showing this. Today they accept unverified reports and they get put on the pns when they could drive and check. In 78 you couldn't get to some areas for a week which made this impossible.

To me the fact that Boston and pvd had almost 30" and never are they usually the jackpots in such storms says a ton. We had bands dumping 4" per hour in these blizzards this year. This one went on for almost two days with ample oes enhancement.

I was there, I know the mean depth was over my head and was well over 40". Drifts were enormous but paled in comparison to 15 miles to the wsw where they were colder but had the same banding.

If that storm happened today the pns would have 60-65" reports and nobody would bat an eyelash. We get 25-30 from 12-15 hour storms, not unreasonable to believe state police and rescue teams when they reported 50-55 after 36 hours.

[Clinch Leatherwood]

I was 25, working in Waltham and living in West Bridgewater during the blizzard. I left Waltham at 3 and drove home... a 6 hour ride to go 30 miles. I was literally the last car off of 128 on the southbound side,

I was driving an MGB (noted snow machine) and a guy I worked with from Brockton was driving a Datsun PU truck loaded with rug cleaning equipment he used in his side job, It took us about 3 hours to get from Waltham to the rest area on 128, where we sat for a full hour with no movement,

I got out of my car, went back to Bob and asked him if he wanted to leave his truck and get in with me because I was going to pull onto the breakdown lane and try to make it around the jam, He declined because he didn't want to abandon his equipment, but said he'd follow me,

We pulled off to the side and I started driving through about 8-10 inches of snow, sometimes in the breakdown lane, sometimes on the shoulder. Where 128 makes the uphill left sweep towards 95 there were several tractor trailers jack knifed trapping everyone behind them. The breakdown lane was blocked as well, but the MG was small and had tons of torque so I gunned it off the shoulder and somehow power slid around the jam and got back onto a suddenly open and very dark 128,

I kept gunning it through the snow until I got up to the top of the hill then looked behind me and there were no other vehicles to be seen. A week later, when we got back to work, I asked Bob what happened. He told me he made it as far as about 100 yards from the jack knife but got stuck on the shoulder and couldn't go any further. He got rescued by the state police on snowmoniles around 10 and spent the week living in a shelter at the Morse Shoe factory in Stoughton with a couple hundred of his closest friends.

It took me another hour to pick my way down to Brocktonn on unplowed roads with abandoned cars scattered around and visability at whiteout to maybe 100 feet at times. I knew I was at rte 27 when I could "feel" the glow in the east from the Westgate Mall lights.

I had an aunt who lived a mile form the mall so I decided to get off there in case the side roads were impassable. I had to get out of the car to locate the off ramp and knock the snow down a bit so I could get onto the ramp. Once i got onto the ramp it had been blown totally clear of snow by th ewind. I got up to 27 and right behind a huge state plow that I followed all the way to Main street.

I should note that once I got going on 128 I saw no other moving vehicles and on 24 I only saw one vehicle heading northbound.

Once on Main street the plow headed north and I continued south through deserted street with a foot of snow in places and nothing in others. I decided to head to my parents house instead of my apartment (better chance of food and beer in the fridge) and somehow porpoised my way through the drifts on totally unplowed backroads to their driveway. I could only get the MGB about 2 or 3 feet off the road ddown their 200' long drive because the snow was so deep.

My parents lived on the top of a hill with open fields to the north and east and a tall hedgerow blocking the northside of the driveway. The next day we had drifts behind the hedges over 10 feet deep blocking the driveway. The cars were completely swallowed. A drift ran from the top of the roof of the house off the back to the ground in one area, blocking windows. It took me better than two days to hand dig the driveway out. My MG had 4 feet of snow on the roof more on the hood and trunk.

It was hard to get an accurate measurement of depth because of the drifts, but everywhere we went in the yard where there was no extreme drifting the snow was a good 6 to 10 inches deeper than the yardstick we had. We figured 40 to 42", which was astounding to us, but seemed to make sense when we started hearing local reports of 40-50 inches in the swath from Weymouth down to Providence.

My father worked for the phone company and had a civil defense clearance, so he could legally drive around once they got us plowed out (only 1 lane wide until the national guard cleared our road later in the week). He had to get down to the scituate marshfield area to check on line problems and came home with dozens of lobsters that had washed up on the beaches and froze..

We ate a lot of lobster that week.

I could go on, but enough...

It was the most amazing weather experience of my life.

People that weren't there or too young/not born don't get it. They don't understand how that epic enhanced band sat over the south shore back to rhode island for a full day.

With the national guard helping it still took a week to get people free. My neighbor was working for Boston Edison at that point. He went to work early on and did not see his family for 8 days. He got stuck on rockland street in foxboro and took shelter with a family he'd never met. It took 5 days to find his car under the snow abandonded not far from the road.

The qpf from 78 speaks for itself. 3" of mayhem.

[CoastalWx]

For us it had nothing to do with the board, we just didn't measure that way back then. We were in survival mode, my parents wouldn't let us open the door as we had no power most of the time. Utility companies didn't prune like they do now.

There were multiple 50+ reports and NOAA even has a graphic showing this. Today they accept unverified reports and they get put on the pns when they could drive and check. In 78 you couldn't get to some areas for a week which made this impossible.

To me the fact that Boston and pvd had almost 30" and never are they usually the jackpots in such storms says a ton. We had bands dumping 4" per hour in these blizzards this year. This one went on for almost two days with ample oes enhancement.

I was there, I know the mean depth was over my head and was well over 40". Drifts were enormous but paled in comparison to 15 miles to the wsw where they were colder but had the same banding.

If that storm happened today the pns would have 60-65" reports and nobody would bat an eyelash. We get 25-30 from 12-15 hour storms, not unreasonable to believe state police and rescue teams when they reported 50-55 after 36 hours.

What town was this??

[CoastalWx]

I was 25, working in Waltham and living in West Bridgewater during the blizzard. I left Waltham at 3 and drove home... a 6 hour ride to go 30 miles. I was literally the last car off of 128 on the southbound side,

I was driving an MGB (noted snow machine) and a guy I worked with from Brockton was driving a Datsun PU truck loaded with rug cleaning equipment he used in his side job, It took us about 3 hours to get from Waltham to the rest area on 128, where we sat for a full hour with no movement,

I got out of my car, went back to Bob and asked him if he wanted to leave his truck and get in with me because I was going to pull onto the breakdown lane and try to make it around the jam, He declined because he didn't want to abandon his equipment, but said he'd follow me,

We pulled off to the side and I started driving through about 8-10 inches of snow, sometimes in the breakdown lane, sometimes on the shoulder. Where 128 makes the uphill left sweep towards 95 there were several tractor trailers jack knifed trapping everyone behind them. The breakdown lane was blocked as well, but the MG was small and had tons of torque so I gunned it off the shoulder and somehow power slid around the jam and got back onto a suddenly open and very dark 128,

I kept gunning it through the snow until I got up to the top of the hill then looked behind me and there were no other vehicles to be seen. A week later, when we got back to work, I asked Bob what happened. He told me he made it as far as about 100 yards from the jack knife but got stuck on the shoulder and couldn't go any further. He got rescued by the state police on snowmoniles around 10 and spent the week living in a shelter at the Morse Shoe factory in Stoughton with a couple hundred of his closest friends.

It took me another hour to pick my way down to Brocktonn on unplowed roads with abandoned cars scattered around and visability at whiteout to maybe 100 feet at times. I knew I was at rte 27 when I could "feel" the glow in the east from the Westgate Mall lights.

I had an aunt who lived a mile form the mall so I decided to get off there in case the side roads were impassable. I had to get out of the car to locate the off ramp and knock the snow down a bit so I could get onto the ramp. Once i got onto the ramp it had been blown totally clear of snow by th ewind. I got up to 27 and right behind a huge state plow that I followed all the way to Main street.

I should note that once I got going on 128 I saw no other moving vehicles and on 24 I only saw one vehicle heading northbound.

Once on Main street the plow headed north and I continued south through deserted street with a foot of snow in places and nothing in others. I decided to head to my parents house instead of my apartment (better chance of food and beer in the fridge) and somehow porpoised my way through the drifts on totally unplowed backroads to their driveway. I could only get the MGB about 2 or 3 feet off the road ddown their 200' long drive because the snow was so deep.

My parents lived on the top of a hill with open fields to the north and east and a tall hedgerow blocking the northside of the driveway. The next day we had drifts behind the hedges over 10 feet deep blocking the driveway. The cars were completely swallowed. A drift ran from the top of the roof of the house off the back to the ground in one area, blocking windows. It took me better than two days to hand dig the driveway out. My MG had 4 feet of snow on the roof more on the hood and trunk.

It was hard to get an accurate measurement of depth because of the drifts, but everywhere we went in the yard where there was no extreme drifting the snow was a good 6 to 10 inches deeper than the yardstick we had. We figured 40 to 42", which was astounding to us, but seemed to make sense when we started hearing local reports of 40-50 inches in the swath from Weymouth down to Providence.

My father worked for the phone company and had a civil defense clearance, so he could legally drive around once they got us plowed out (only 1 lane wide until the national guard cleared our road later in the week). He had to get down to the scituate marshfield area to check on line problems and came home with dozens of lobsters that had washed up on the beaches and froze..

We ate a lot of lobster that week.

I could go on, but enough...

It was the most amazing weather experience of my life.

What street did your folks live on in Brockton? I grew up there.

[HoarfrostHubb]

I will say again, Dec '92, March 1993, April 1997, etc. pale in comparison.

National Guard used giant front end loaders to clear my street after 1 week. Our plows today are not much different, and I am not sure if there are more of them, but if this hit the same place in the same way again, it would have pretty much the same results. Our infrastructure and other systems are really not designed to handle an event such as this. Would we survive, of course. But it would be a while before things were back to "normal".

This and 1938 were the worst large scale events in New England in the last 120 years or so (Blizz 1888?)

Our arrogance gets tested every now and then

[CoastalWx]

I don't buy the PVD QPF. Should be higher.

[klw]

One advantage for dealing with storms of a large magnitude is that AWD/ 4WD drive cars and SUV's are now commonplace. I remember even in 96 there were people with 4wd volunteering to help with getting patients to the hospital. The likelihood of people getting stuck/stranded and backing up roads and feeling isolated seems reduced.. I have no idea if this actually is helping with snow removal in larger storms but it seems like it could be a factor. I was still in elementary school in 78so I could be wrong on this but it seems like now more people would have been sent home early or telecommuting now than back then.

[mattb65]

One advantage for dealing with storms of a large magnitude is that AWD/ 4WD drive cars and SUV's are now commonplace. I remember even in 96 there were people with 4wd volunteering to help with getting patients to the hospital. The likelihood of people getting stuck/stranded and backing up roads and feeling isolated seems reduced.. I have no idea if this actually is helping with snow removal in larger storms but it seems like it could be a factor. I was still in elementary school in 78so I could be wrong on this but it seems like now more people would have been sent home early or telecommuting now than back then.

True - but I only really trust the mountain folks or lifetime winter folks with the 4wd and AWD - the Pete's of the world who drive winter-round on snow covered roads. Many of the city dwelling 4wd drivers are more of a hazard than the 2wd sedan folks because they think they are invincible in their 4wd jeep cherokee's and pickup trucks. Those cars are often the ones I see flipped on their side in the highway median. But your point is definitely valid because there are enough experienced 4wd owning drivers to get around in these types of situations.

[HoarfrostHubb]

True - but I only really trust the mountain folks or lifetime winter folks with the 4wd and AWD - the Pete's of the world who drive winter-round on snow covered roads. Many of the city dwelling 4wd drivers are more of a hazard than the 2wd sedan folks because they think they are invincible in their 4wd jeep cherokee's and pickup trucks. Those cars are often the ones I see flipped on their side in the highway median. But your point is definitely valid because there are enough experienced 4wd owning drivers to get around in these types of situations.

Agree on both points.

However, if your car/truck/SUV is buried under a 5'+ drift, not gonna go. And the drift extends for 100 yards in all directions/

And I do agree that probably fewer cars would have been stuck on 128... but Dec of '07 had many 4WD vehicles stuck...behind those who were stuck behind whatever... gridlock is a beeatch

[codfishsnowman]

For those who are most informed on the 78 event I have a few questions...

For areas near the ct river valley..the way it was explained to me was that there was a tremendous front end dump of snow with most of it falling in the first twelve hours or so of the storm. Where I lived in Bristol I believe they recorded 18 or 20 inches but that would have been at the end of the event as there was no board clearing. BDL and CEF were also really low in the 15-17 inch range.

So for the hfd/spfd area there was a heavy burst of snow and then it just was very light snow/flurries for the rest of the event while areas not far to the east and northeast just got smoked??

I guess I am trying to understand why amounts were so much less in the valley..was it a dry slot issue? Still I remember people talking about the storm growing up and they said it was the worst they had seen the combo of snow and wind. My mom had pics from the storm and it really looked like at least two feet in the pics she had (Bristol CT) .

I wish there was a radar loop of that event...I know there were some heavier jackpot amounts in western ct and se/e nystate which is typical in noreasters.

[Clinch Leatherwood]

I cannot believe there is no visible satellite loop or radar loop either.

Scott the guy on channel ten out of providence back then had a weather spotter in east providence that reported 2"...the last part of the storm wad prolific oes banding

[LatLong]

Agree on both points.

However, if your car/truck/SUV is buried under a 5'+ drift, not gonna go. And the drift extends for 100 yards in all directions/

And I do agree that probably fewer cars would have been stuck on 128... but Dec of '07 had many 4WD vehicles stuck...behind those who were stuck behind whatever... gridlock is a beeatch

I'm guessing that a significant difference today during most "average" snowstorms is just the fact that most cars are at least front-wheel drive only, whereas in 1978 (and earlier) almost all were rear-wheel drive only and absolutely helpless in snow. But when the snow gets to be 10" or deeper, almost any standard car or van today will "bottom out" and get stuck.

I'm also struck by when I talk with people about 1978 as to how afraid many were of being trapped by the snow. I had never experienced that feeling (I was a kid in 1978, and so relatively fearless) until this most recent series of storms when the depth of snow in my yard was 3 feet, I had at least 2 feet on the roof and up to 4 feet in the valleys of the roof of my house (I know because I had to remove it all), and the snowpiles along the driveway had reached 7 feet. I was truly concerned about what I would do with the snow if another blockbuster had struck this week.

[tamarack]

This and 1938 were the worst large scale events in New England in the last 120 years or so (Blizz 1888?)

Our arrogance gets tested every now and then

As I opined in an earlier thread (on Eastern?), 1938 should stand alone, both for effects (fatalities/damage) and for anomalousness - if that's a word. No other 1870-onward TC in New England is in the same class.

1888 for western New England and eastern NY State is probably the nearest snow/wind equivalent of 1978 in SE New England, except that the earlier event was about 25F colder in the areas of maximum impact.

[HoarfrostHubb]

As I opined in an earlier thread (on Eastern?), 1938 should stand alone, both for effects (fatalities/damage) and for anomalousness - if that's a word. No other 1870-onward TC in New England is in the same class.

1888 for western New England and eastern NY State is probably the nearest snow/wind equivalent of 1978 in SE New England, except that the earlier event was about 25F colder in the areas of maximum impact.

That part is just off the hook. Biggest storm, amazing cold... what a combo.

And yes, you are correct, 1938 was a much more devastating event.