KEITH L.I Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 One of my favorite childhood storms..and one of the biggest busts from the NWS.The day before the forecast was for Rain and a high near 40..I had to sleep over my aunts house in Boro Park Brooklyn that night.I was listenling to weather forecasts the day before and everybody was calling for all rain, except Bob Harris on WOR radio who said this storm could surprise and be an all snow event, and if that was the case it would be alot.Anyway went to sleep and woke up at 2am..my cousin came home and said sleet was coming down..figured it would be a washout.Woke up at 7 the next morning to heavy wet snow..they were still calling for a change to rain which never happend..heavy snow fell well into Sunday night Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chazman Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Remember having no school pretty much that whole week. Lots of folks never made it into work that week either (lived in Queens). There was a lot of feigned outrage at being forced to stay home that week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian5671 Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 why was it called the Lindsay storm? What track did it take vs the forecast track? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindywx Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 why was it called the Lindsay storm? What track did it take vs the forecast track? John Lindsay was major of NYC at the time. In the storms aftermath there were sections of Queens that were not plowed for nearly a week. The overall initial cleanup of all of the Boroughs was lousy and it pissed people off to the point that when it when it came time for his re-election it caused him problems, but he was re-elected anyway..... The initial low developed in Oklahoma and tracked ENE to just off the Va. coast where it bombed out and stalled. High pressure had moved off the coast and there were ESE winds prior to and during the begining stages of storm. When the storm bombed winds shifted tto NE and provided just enough cold air to change the rain and sleet quickly to snow. By 7am, after a few hours of rain and sleet we changed over to heavy snow. The temp. hovered around 30F all day with heavy snow and increasing winds till mid evening. Most of the 5 boroughs saw in the neighborbood of 20", but parts of Queens received at least 2 feet. It was a near blizzard for the city by old standards (temp had to be lower than 20F) and the storm had much less impact as you traveled east across L.I. where Montauk only saw a couple of inches. It was a Great Storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliancolton Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 John Lindsay was major of NYC at the time. In the storms aftermath there were sections of Queens that were not plowed for nearly a week. The overall initial cleanup of all of the Boroughs was lousy and it pissed people off to the point that when it when it came time for his re-election he was doomed. That's what I recall as I was 11 at the time. According to my previous research on this storm, he still won the election, but he really had to bend over backwards to do so. The interesting thing about this storm is that despite its well-remembered and severe effects in the metro NYC region, it was only rated Cat 2 on the NESIS scale due to its relatively small impact area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindywx Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 According to my previous research on this storm, he still won the election, but he really had to bend over backwards to do so. The interesting thing about this storm is that despite its well-remembered and severe effects in the metro NYC region, it was only rated Cat 2 on the NESIS scale due to its relatively small impact area. I know, I edited my post. For some reason I thought he wasn't re-elected but Abe Beame followed Lindsay in 1974 . He did catch a lot of heat though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simpsonsbuff Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Lindsay lost a primary that year... Of course, it was probably because he was considerably more liberal than the R base not because of the storm. He won re-election on a third-party ticket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle W Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I was 20 at the time and remember it well...That Saturday temperatures were in the upper 30's under increasing clouds...I noticed many birds in the southern sky flying inland...Something I never saw before and thought it was strange...I don't remember if snow was in the forecast but I remember wishing for it...I went to a rock concert that night and saw Canned Heat at the Fillmore East...While waiting on line before going in the winds were blowing from the SE...Temperature was 36 around 10pm...The show ended around 3am and it was snowing but not sticking as I drove home...I went to sleep around 4am with wet snow falling...I awoke at 8am and the snow was sticking and falling heavy...The forecast that morning was for snow to change to rain but around 11am I believe accuwx was calling for a all snow event...The snow continued all day and was wet at first but a drier lighter powdery snow fell after dark...A week later I got stuck driving on a side street...The unplowed streets were not only a Queens thing...Brooklyn was pretty bad also... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindywx Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I was 20 at the time and remember it well...That Saturday temperatures were in the upper 30's under increasing clouds...I noticed many birds in the southern sky flying inland...Something I never saw before and thought it was strange...I don't remember if snow was in the forecast but I remember wishing for it...I went to a rock concert that night and saw Canned Heat at the Fillmore East...While waiting on line before going in the winds were blowing from the SE...Temperature was 36 around 10pm...The show ended around 3am and it was snowing but not sticking as I drove home...I went to sleep around 4am with wet snow falling...I awoke at 8am and the snow was sticking and falling heavy...The forecast that morning was for snow to change to rain but around 11am I believe accuwx was calling for a all snow event...The snow continued all day and was wet at first but a drier lighter powdery snow fell after dark...A week later I got stuck driving on a side street...The unplowed streets were not only a Queens thing...Brooklyn was pretty bad also... Wow! Canned Heat....Didn't they open up Woodstock with "Going Up The Country" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KEITH L.I Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 I was 20 at the time and remember it well...That Saturday temperatures were in the upper 30's under increasing clouds...I noticed many birds in the southern sky flying inland...Something I never saw before and thought it was strange...I don't remember if snow was in the forecast but I remember wishing for it...I went to a rock concert that night and saw Canned Heat at the Fillmore East...While waiting on line before going in the winds were blowing from the SE...Temperature was 36 around 10pm...The show ended around 3am and it was snowing but not sticking as I drove home...I went to sleep around 4am with wet snow falling...I awoke at 8am and the snow was sticking and falling heavy...The forecast that morning was for snow to change to rain but around 11am I believe accuwx was calling for a all snow event...The snow continued all day and was wet at first but a drier lighter powdery snow fell after dark...A week later I got stuck driving on a side street...The unplowed streets were not only a Queens thing...Brooklyn was pretty bad also... yep WINS radio..I think that carried accuweather then..started calling for a major snowstorm with no changeover in the mid morning Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chazman Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 According to my previous research on this storm, he still won the election, but he really had to bend over backwards to do so. He rode the Mets coattails when they won the Series in 69' http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/remembering-a-snowstorm-that-paralyzed-the-city/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravitylover Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I remember one of my parents carrying me outside and standing me up a few feet in front of our stoop. The snow was up to the top of my head and I freaked. I'm obviously a little bit younger than UncleW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchel Volk Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I was 14 at the time in Oceanside. It started as rain at 3am then I woke up at 7am to heavy rain. By 8am it was heavy sleet and with in a few minutes it was S+. There was blizzard condition all day and night. When I woke up the next day, there were bare spots and drifts up to 15 feet. In addition across my house there was a hught 10 foot drift that was about 100 feet long. A truly impressive storm, it was the storm that really got me into meteorology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pamela Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Storm Totals 2/10/1969: Dobbs Ferry (Westchester): 22.2" Garden City (Nassau): 22.0" JFK Airport (Queens): 20.2" Mineola (Nassau): 20.0" Danbury (Fairfield): 18.0" Bridgeport (Fairfield): 17.7" Norwalk (Fairfield): 17.5" LaGuardia Airport (Queens): 16.1" Yorktown Heights (Westchester): 16.0" NYC Central Park (Manhattan): 15.3" Patchogue (Suffolk): 14.8" Charlotteburg Reservoir (Passaic): 14.0" Newark Airport (Essex): 13.8" Setauket (Suffolk): 12.0" Freehold (Monmouth): 11.3" New Brunswick (Middlesex): 10.6" Long Branch (Monmouth): 10.5" Bridgehampton (Suffolk): 3.5" Philadelphia Intl. Airport (Philadelphia): 2.9" Atlantic City Airport (Atlantic): 1.4" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm1220 Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I was 14 at the time in Oceanside. It started as rain at 3am then I woke up at 7am to heavy rain. By 8am it was heavy sleet and with in a few minutes it was S+. There was blizzard condition all day and night. When I woke up the next day, there were bare spots and drifts up to 15 feet. In addition across my house there was a hught 10 foot drift that was about 100 feet long. A truly impressive storm, it was the storm that really got me into meteorology. I wonder what such a storm would look like on today's modelling, and what the forecasts would have been. It looks like it caught many completely by surprise. It also looks like this area (Nassau/Queens) was ground zero for the highest impact. Totals were over 20" in this area and my parents both remember it well as young kids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthlight Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 According to this naming logic we should now be referring to Dec 26-27 as the Bloomberg storm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Analog96 Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 According to this naming logic we should now be referring to Dec 26-27 as the Bloomberg storm I was thinking about that when it happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEC Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I was a senior in high school at the time and remember the storm very well. The day before (Saturday) I actually played golf in Bethpage.... it was a cold, damp, drizzling day (but my dad, my brother and I were golf junkies then). It was raining that Saturday afternoon and night with forecasts for rain on Sunday. Obviously that didn't happen, and partially because of the poor forecast and partially because it was a Sunday event, the City was not ready to handle a big snow. The schools were closed on Monday, and possibly on Tuesday, too, but I can't remember for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzucker Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Storm Totals 2/10/1969: Dobbs Ferry (Westchester): 22.2" Wow, I didn't realize Southern Westchester had the jackpot in the Lindsay Storm. My house probably received a bit more than the official total of 22.2" due to its elevation in what was certainly a marginal storm....I guess we can add that to the list of 2-foot snowstorms here. 68-69 was a very impressive winter with extremely cold temperatures at certain points and the snowy February. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pamela Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Wow, I didn't realize Southern Westchester had the jackpot in the Lindsay Storm. My house probably received a bit more than the official total of 22.2" due to its elevation in what was certainly a marginal storm....I guess we can add that to the list of 2-foot snowstorms here. 68-69 was a very impressive winter with extremely cold temperatures at certain points and the snowy February. Imagine if the famous "100 Hours Storm" that buried Boston late in Feb 1969 (two weeks later) had backed a little more to the SW...the eastern tip of Long Island just got the fringes of it with up to 8 inches of snow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Our local scout troop (I was an asst. scoutmaster) was at Allamuchy Scout Reservation in NW NJ that weekend. Saturday was spent in/around the woods, teaching/learning scouting skills, with no radio available so no knowledge of forecasts, though when I saw the afternoon's increasing cloudiness I wondered. We woke up at 5 AM to 2" snow with a steady moderate NE wind, and by the time we headed east there was about 4". I had only one passenger in my '62 Beetle, which was an excellent snow vehicle. By the time we got to our N.Morris Cty home there was 8-9" and it was just puking snow. We ended up with about 18", then it blew all night and all the next day, gusts 40+, at least. I was working for three brothers bulding houses, and when we tried to reach the one we planned to work on that Monday we found a 5-6' drift right across the road. With no access to any worksite, we all went home, and later that day I walked to the lee shore of the local 55-acre pond, to watch the blowing snow between it and the 30-acre lower pond. Visibility was about 50' and the drift on the not-plowed-in-winter causeway road was 10' deep. As most probably know, NYC snowplows are mounted on garbage trucks. A few days after the storm, the head of the sanitation workers' union commented about Mayor Lindsay's actions during/following the storm, "He played it by ear, and he was stone deaf!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-L-E-X Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 According to my previous research on this storm, he still won the election, but he really had to bend over backwards to do so. The interesting thing about this storm is that despite its well-remembered and severe effects in the metro NYC region, it was only rated Cat 2 on the NESIS scale due to its relatively small impact area. 2 feet of snow here, along with the Feb 1961 storm, the two biggest snowstorms (both two feet) of the 60s! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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