griteater Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 The 1st storm (Jan 22) was the biggest wintry weather forecast bust that I can ever remember here in Charlotte. Forecast was for rain with the possibility of sleet mixed in...we ended up with 9 inches of snow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
das Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 I had just started as a Washington Post paperboy earlier that fall and I remember on the morning of the second storm, the roads were so bad that the distribution truck just dumped the 100 newspapers at the intersection of the main road near my neighborhood instead of neatly on my driveway per usual. I forget how I figured out where they were, but I remember I took a sled up to where the papers were, piled them in the sled, and sledded them back to my house to put them in the plastic bags. I also remember trudging through the deep snow delivering those things and was worried that people would complain about their papers being late, since it took me an extra hour to deliver. Actually, though, when I went door-to-door to collect people's money later that month, I got compliment after compliment regarding how reliable I was despite the weather. I got massive tips and became a neighborhood legend. My parents still live in that neighborhood and when the neighbors see me when I visit, they still mention how great of a paperboy I was, in large part because of that particular week! Great story! The feedback from Wes is awesome-- I was 14 and this is a HUGE memory to me. Hearing his behind the scense stuff is like having access to a championship team's coach for insight. Agree completely. I was going to school in California and my long-time mentor (Dr. Don Miller from Cal State in Fresno) picked this storm to discuss east coast snow storms to the class that was largely uninterested since their holy grail is the pineapple express into the Sierra's. I still remember hearing Dr. Miller say 4 or 5 days before the storm, "the trick is which shortwave to key into. Which one, which one, really tricky..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gymengineer Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 What helped make the first storm so magical (if you weren't stuck on the road for it) was that it had been 4 years since the previous 10"+ (even 8"+) snowstorm. For the 8" threshold in the suburbs, that's a pretty long time. On top of that, it ended up being a positive bust- slightly exceeding even the highest forecasts (Wes's) as pointed out in this thread. We ended up with around 13". I grew up in the 80's and 90's, a stretch where any 10"+ snowstorm was automatically "one of the bests." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usedtobe Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 What helped make the first storm so magical (if you weren't stuck on the road for it) was that it had been 4 years since the previous 10"+ (even 8"+) snowstorm. For the 8" threshold in the suburbs, that's a pretty long time. On top of that, it ended up being a positive bust- slightly exceeding even the highest forecasts (Wes's) as pointed out in this thread. We ended up with around 13". I grew up in the 80's and 90's, a stretch where any 10"+ snowstorm was automatically "one of the bests." That storm was neat except it caused lots of tree damage in mby, it toppled a couple of pine trees and part of a really pretty birch tree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gymengineer Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 That storm was neat except it caused lots of tree damage in mby, it toppled a couple of pine trees and part of a really pretty birch tree. Was tree damage even worse during the 2/23 storm, then? The February storm caused the record power outage for Pepco until the 1/99 ice storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchnick Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 I googled the 1/22/87 storm and came up with this link nice article Zwyts; to bad it made me cry http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2010/02/as_we_edge_closer_to.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeRedheads Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 I googled the 1/22/87 storm and came up with this link nice article Zwyts; to bad it made me cry http://voices.washin..._closer_to.html Would love to relive that whole experience. February 2010 was epic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fozz Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 Would love to relive that whole experience. February 2010 was epic. Epic isn't even enough to describe it..........having almost 40" on the ground after two back to back blizzards is almost apocalyptic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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