Fifteen Year Anniversary of Louisville's Biggest Snowstorm

[ukrocks]

Out of all my friends, I'm the only one that remembers Louisville's biggest snowstorm of all-time. We picked up 22.4 inches of snow over the course of three days.

 

Everybody thinks the 1994 storm is Louisville's biggest snowstorm of all time, but time and time again, I have to remind them about 1998. The 1994 storm brought the most snow in 12 and 24 hours and crippled the city.

 

Temperatures were at or above freezing during parts of the 1998 storm. I was 10 years old and remember sledding at Tyler Park during this storm. Schools were shut down for at least a week. The side roads were in awful shape, but the city didn't completely shut down like the 94 storm.

 

The strangest thing about this storm is that the moisture from the second half of the storm came from the Atlantic Ocean, not the Gulf Mexico. Low-pressure went from the deep south to coastal Carolina.

 

WDRB in Louisville did a great writeup of the storm.

 

 

 

[snowstormcanuck]

We were talking about this storm in the complaint thread a while back. It was also Cincinnati's biggest snowstorm. Very thread the needle.  

[OntarioWX]

Kind of amazing that this storm happened in the disaster season of 1997-98. February 1998 in particular was one of the worst winter months ever in southwestern Ontario, not even an inch of snow fell that entire month. To have such a massive storm in the Ohio Valley is pretty bizarre.

[snowstormcanuck]

Kind of amazing that this storm happened in the disaster season of 1997-98. February 1998 in particular was one of the worst winter months ever in southwestern Ontario, not even an inch of snow fell that entire month. To have such a massive storm in the Ohio Valley is pretty bizarre.

 

I think it was Buckeye who made the observation that while it was snowing in the lower OV, BUF was reporting rain. No arctic or polar air to work with during this storm. Just enough cold air generated by the mid level low.

[Hoosier]

The 850 mb maps from this event are pretty sweet...just ripping easterly flow from the Atlantic into the Ohio Valley.

[ukrocks]

Kind of amazing that this storm happened in the disaster season of 1997-98. February 1998 in particular was one of the worst winter months ever in southwestern Ontario, not even an inch of snow fell that entire month. To have such a massive storm in the Ohio Valley is pretty bizarre.

 

Wow. The 1997-1998 winter has been the second snowiest winter of my life thus far with 27.2 inches. I consider that month the greatest wintry month of my life because of that storm. I love big storms.

 

1995-1996 has been the best with 32 inches. I dream of the day I see 30 inches in a winter again. It has happened seven times since 1873, so every 22 years we are due for one. I'm 25, so I need to be patient, ha.

 

2002-2003 brought me 22.3 inches and in Murray, I received 21 inches during the 2010-2011 winter. Weird how weather works sometimes.

 

But, Louisville typically gets its biggest snow from upper level lows that travel through the deep south and then pivots northward. This particular storm is probably a once in a lifetime event for this area.

[michsnowfreak]

I actually vaguely remember this. Feb 1998 was a unique disaster at Detroit. The first Feb on record to have no measurable snow, just a trace falling on the month (the previous record low was 0.7" in 1953). The winter of 1997-98 sucked overall, but Feb was by far the worst of it all. The only other DJF month with no measurable snow was Dec 1889 when 0.0" snow fell.