Earliest weather memory

[Ottawa Blizzard]

What is everyone's earliest weather memory? I remember the heatwave of early July 1988. I was 8 years old and our air conditioner broke down just as Toronto approached 100F.

[Hoosier]

I remember a thunderstorm that blew down some limbs and a couple trees in my neighborhood when I was 4. Have some memories of the summer of 1988 but not many.

[Thunder Road]

Floyd in September of 1999.  For a year or so any time it rained hard I thought there would be catastrophic flooding again.

 

I guess I remember the drought of 1998 somewhat too (I have a vague picture in my mind of the Neshaminy Creek running *almost* dry) but droughts < hurricanes.

[Stebo]

September of 1990, a F3 tornado touched down in the Metro Detroit area while I was at school in Kindergarden, we had to take cover in the hallways with books on the top of our heads. It ended up passing a couple miles North of the school however. I would have been 5 at the time.

[OntarioWX]

Hard to say for sure. I vaguely recall going outside and experiencing all the snow after the Jan. '99 blizzard, for which I would have been five years old. Definitely my first winter memory, going outside and making snowmen and having all the neighbours play hockey on the road.

[Low Pressure Lunacy]

When I was 9 in 1966 we were living at Fort Riley Kansas and I distinctly remember a line of thunderstorms that went through and was part of the June 1966 tornado outbreak. I remember the neighbors above ground pool flying down the road and then later on the adults talking about the tornado that destroyed Topeka Kansas. This is what probably started my fascination with weather and then it was reenforced when Hurricane Charley's eye passed 11-12 miles from where I live now.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_1966_tornado_outbreak_sequence

June 1966 tornado outbreak sequence

 

F3 Riley 39.07°N 96.77°W 0000 13.8 miles (22.2 km) At least 65 Injuries. Enormous 1.2 mile wide tornado, caused $5 million in damage in Manhattan. KSU campus sustained $1,850,000 in damage alone. 11 homes were destroyed and others were unroofed. An apartment building and 66 trailers were destroyed as well.^[2]

 

[Brewers]

The May 1998 Great Lakes derecho, I was 6 at the time and can remember quite a few trees being knocked down in my neighborhood include one across the street from my house.

[bkviking]

Hurricane Belle in 1976, though I was 5. I remember nothing about storm until the storm was receding and my dad took me and my sisters out and I thought it was cool with the branches down. One flash memory of that event in Smithtown LI. The storm that I was much more aware of, however, was the Blizzard of 78. I lived out east in Sound Beach at that time. My memory is huge drifts and amazing scary winds. Not much else. Gloria in 85 I remember every detail as I was a weather fanatic at that time, obsessed with weather channel when they had Brian Durst, Gaye Dawson and John Hope covering the storm. The best days started in early 2000s on WWBB, when I was curious about the temperamental Met who was both extremely educational and insulting. Good ole DT. Lol.

[ma blizzard]

april fools blizzard '97

[saltysenior]

i remember walking to school and eating snow in the AM ...all the white snow was piled from the snow plows .....by the time school was out all the snow was black from dirt,soot,and whatever and you had to go under that to get clean snow to eat....harrison,n.j  about '48

[RutgersWx92]

My earliest distinct weather memory was a severe thunderstorm which, after looking through past records, was probably on July 18, 1997.  I remember the winds being so strong and there being a lot of tree damage, and I think this event is what really sparked my interest in weather.

[HurricaneJosh]

Mine was Hurricane Belle, a Cat 1 that passed right over my town on Long Island in August 1976.  I was six years old.  I don't remember the actual storm-- the cyclone came ashore a little after midnight-- but I remember stepping outside the next morning and just feeling shocked.  Our neighborhood had really gotten clobbered-- lots of trees and branches down, my mother's flower beds destroyed, etc.  That sparked my interest in weather-- I was wondering what on earth had happened overnight to transform the neighborhood so dramatically.

[wxmeddler]

Summer monsoon thunderstorms and dust storms in Arizona. I used to guess which thunderheads would go onto produce a severe thunderstorm warnings and then compare the radar with what I saw outside. I loved those storms, because when it rained it poured and was just an awesome sight in Phoenix. The dust storms were awesome too, bendy palms FTW.

[LocoAko]

The Blizzard of 96 for me. I don't remember the storm, just shoveling and playing in the aftermath. The first event I can remember very vividly was Floyd. 

[MN Transplant]

I'd like to say it was a snowstorm or other cool weather event, but I lived in California for some of my younger years, so my earliest weather memory is having "fog days" in the San Joaquin Valley where they would delay school because the visibility was too poor.

[Srain]

[ApacheTrout]

I grew up in southern California, so my first memory of weather isn't of violence, but of ice.  In either 1977 or 1978, there was a pretty good cold snap for the Los Angeles areas, and my parents encouraged me to set out a bowl of water to see if it would freeze.  Sure enough, there would be ice (nothing thick) on the water come morning.  But one morning, it was particularly cold, and word got out quickly that the parks and rec had forgotten to turn off the sprinklers throughout the park on the way to school.  The concrete paths were smooth with ice, and we were a bit late making it to school that morning as we slid on our knees and skated in our sneakers.

 

So that sparked my fascination with cold weather.  Every winter thereafter, I'd put the bowl out and hope the parks and rec were once more forgetful, but it never did happened again.  But I kept watching the hills above Simi Valley and Northridge, because every so often the snow level would drop and the peaks above 2,000 feet would be coated white for a day or two.  I'm certain I prayed more for the snow level to hit the valley floors than I did for world peace or the end of hunger, but that was  a much better wish in the mind of a young boy, because snow would be magical.  And then on February 9, 1989, the miracle happened.  February 8 was a nasty, blustery day with a bitter cold high parked over the Great Basin that pumped freezing air into the Los Angeles basin throughout the day and into the overnight hours.  Sometime around 2 or 3 am on the 9th, an arctic low pressure system dropped south just off the coast and then turned east into Los Angeles and collided with the cold air.  The snow began to fall.  I don't remember there being any forecast for snow at such low levels, so it was a great surprise to find upon waking  everything covered with three inches of snow .  And true snow, not just the thick hail that can sometimes fall in such ferocity that the grass gets covered.  This was snowball snow, pack it up snow, build a snowman snow.  Get your camera snow.  Wake your neighbor snow.  It didn't last long, it was mostly melted by noon, but oh, what a day.

[LongBeachSurfFreak]

Gloria 85. The tree in front of my house lost its top half and took down the power lines and 2 closest poles. I do not remember the actual storm as others have said just the damage afterwards. Strange what a 3 year old will remember. My favorite early age winter memory is the March 92 superstorm. Living near the water the aftermath was a kids dream come true. The storm surge had combined with a foot of snow the following day to create mini icebergs in the street. We built a fort out of chunks of ice that where essentially natural cinder blocks! 

[tamarack]

Nov 1950 Apps gale, when I was 4.  My dad, older brother and I were on the back porch watching the trees thrashing in the wind (the storm was mostly dry and mild in NNJ.)  When some treetops began breaking out, dad said it was time to go inside.

 

First wx event for which I have clear and vivid memories was a major ice storm in areas N & W of NYC, in Jan 1953.  We were awakened by a mid-size sugar maple snapping in half outside our bedroom window, my dad had to cut gray birch out of our road on both the 1st and 2nd mornings.  On day 3 the ice came off the trees and piled 6" deep in our driveway.  I don't think a single tree over 30' tall escaped some breakage, and it was 6 days w/o power.  For the next couple years, the only drawing I wanted to do was of trees bent/broken under ice.  That event likely sparked my interest in both my hobby, weather, and my vocation, forestry.

[Ottawa Blizzard]

 I actually think my earliest memory may be the 1985 Barrie, Ontario tornado. Interestingly, for years afterwards, whenever I heard the name Barrie I though tornado and life threatning weather. Also, coincidently, I had an Aunt named Dorothy who died in 1985 and, as a kid, I associated the name Dorothy with tornadoes!  I remember being in Grade 4 in January 1990 and having our ski trip cancelled due to there being no snow - I was so sad about this. They rescheduled the trip for two weeks later, but it too was cancelled due to, again, lack of snow. I remember how chilly it was in late May and mid June of 1992 - it felt so weird having to wear a jacket and sweater the last week of classes.

[HurricaneJosh]

This is one of those threads where everyone's basically talking to themselves.  

[Ed Lizard]

This is one of those threads where everyone's basically talking to themselves.  

 

Speaking of talking t themselves...

I remember as a real small child a cold front, with a lot of wind, dust, and a snow squall.  Probably 1960s.

 

I remember Dr. Frank's black and white radar showing strong thunderstorms, going outside to wait for them to arrive in Massapequa, and never making it.

 

Maybe first memory, which internet suggests was Tropical Storm Doria of 1971, sleeping in bed with my parents because of the wind.  I wasn't aware of it as a named tropical system at the time.  Interweb suggests the winds were barely TS force on Long Island, I must have had a low threshold for wind as a child.

 

We evacuated for Belle, my first exposure to cable TV, the Harkins in North Massaequa.  Belle did a number on weeping willow trees, the ones left alone lived as they fell, but was more like an adventure than anything else.

 

Famous systems, the January 1978 snow to rain forecast that busted and was snow to sleet, and got me a day off (North Shore Wx has pics) and then the big one a few weeks later, the Blizzard of '78

[Teru Teru Bozu]

 I actually think my earliest memory may be the 1985 Barrie, Ontario tornado. Interestingly, for years afterwards, whenever I heard the name Barrie I though tornado and life threatning weather.

 

That's funny because my earliest memory is the Raleigh, N.C. tornado of November 1988, and for several years I was afraid to go to Raleigh because I was sure that that was where all the tornadoes happened! Funny how my brain rationalized this weather stuff when I was a little kid.

 

That was a pretty bad storm, though...an F4 that was on the ground for over 80 miles. I know now that tornadoes aren't that rare in the Southern U.S. at that time of year, but at the time it freaked me out pretty badly. Tornadoes - they can happen at ANY TIME.

 

North Carolina folks might remember the K-Mart on Highway 70 that was destroyed by the tornado. I shudder to think what the toll might have been had the tornado struck during the daytime instead of the middle of the night...

 

[f2tornado]

I was at a Sunday mass, probably age 4, and the sky was green as can be. Rain was intense. I returned home in Ramsey, MN to see as section of the neighbor's garage deposited in my yard and a roughly three foot wide path of prairie grass mowed down to the ground. The path terminated at my dog house which was destroyed. The doors in my house were warped and some water seeped in through window sills, both obviously related to the rapid pressure change.  I was certain it was a tornado even at that early age. I can picture a quickly roping out elephant trunk as the damage I saw was limited to about a 100 yard path. My brother and I simply dubbed it the "Green Storm" for many years.

[masomenos]

The Blizzard of 96 for me. I don't remember the storm, just shoveling and playing in the aftermath. The first event I can remember very vividly was Floyd. 

Same here. I distinctly remember  getting out of school early and being amazed by the chest deep  snow.

 

Floyd was definitely my first "full" weather experience.

 

The only other thing that stands out is the life threatning fever I had during that brutal heat wave in 1993...very hazy memory, though.

[Roger Smith]

I have nearly perfect recall of weather events from the 1960s when I was a teenager and maintainng a daily weather station. That started at New Years in 1964 but before that, I remember the very warm and sunny October in 1963 (in southern Ontario just to the west of Toronto), it was summer-like and the month set a new record for both daily and monthly extremes.

 

As it turned out, 1964 was not a terrific year for memorable weather events so the first year of what I recall is rather mundane other than the surprise value of finding my rain gauge almost full on July 12th after a long downpour. But the winter of 1964-65 was much more active and there was one snowstorm in particular on Feb 25th that was memorable, it left behind large piles of snow and I recall shovelling that off our sidewalk just when my mother and her pregnant friend showed up walking up the hill and crossing the road, the friend got stuck in the snow and we had to pull her out. Wow, that's almost half a century ago now. Amazing how time flies.

 

My specific recall ends gradually as a friend took over my weather station when I went off to university, and then I moved away from that area after graduation, so it starts up again in a new part of the province for a few years in the very active weather of the mid-1970s. So my biggest single weather memory would be the snowstorm of April 2-3, 1975 and the aftermath, which was days of clear skies and a freeze-thaw cycle of massive snowdrifts, leaving the landscape (north of Toronto) looking like the arctic islands with long frozen drifts and bare ground in between. That storm dropped about 27 inches of snow on a level before it started to drift.

 

It's a wonder I remember anything but weather given how many specific events I could recall, maybe there's something wrong with me. Oh yeah, this is a weather forum, what am I saying?

[Ground Scouring]

25 August 1992: I was born at 4:35 a.m. in Fort Lauderdale, exactly one full day--to the minute--that Hurricane Andrew came ashore near Fender Point, just NE of Homestead. I can remember first opening my eyes to the world and seeing my bedraggled parents joyously giggling (well, my mother at least) and speaking to me. Then I fell asleep but woke up again as my parents drove into the driveway of our apartment in Palm-Aire, SW Pompano Beach, which was and is just N of the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. I can remember seeing many large tree branches and wires down and crews moving about, their chain saws rattling inconsolably and their hands hauling broken trees. Many small trees were downed, and even though Andrew dropped little rain, the golf course was built on a floodplain in what was once Everglades marshland before intensive urbanization circa 1970-1990. Needless to say, I saw many large "ponds" covering much of the eighteenth fairway which our back porch overlooked.

In the days afterward, I can still remember hearing the voice of Bryan Norcross as he was being interviewed following CBS-4 Miami's traumatic experience during Andrew. And of course, some of the newspapers and television images were just filled the devastation to parts of South Dade County, though the trailer parks received inordinate attention that did not do justice to the full destruction down there. To this day my mother believes that the lowered air pressure prior to Andrew made for the unusual timing of my birth, though I vehemently dispute that assertion. One thing that still stands out to me is that, only 24 hours before landfall, the center of the cone indicated Andrew would hit very close to Fort Lauderdale, putting Pompano in the powerful N eye-wall. My parents lacked the resources to evacuate; they were relatively poor then and my mother was obviously pregnant, so she went with my father to Holy Cross Hospital in NE Fort Lauderdale. Had Andrew not taken that .5-degree S jog over the Gulf Stream, either downtown Miami would have been smashed or, *shudder*, I would have probably never been born.

And then, only a few months after Andrew, came the March 1993 Super-storm. To this day, that was the most extreme event had I ever witnessed before Hurricane Wilma (2005) in Boca Raton. I was looking out through the windows as the he huge prefrontal squall line produced amazing winds out on the golf course. Sea-grape trees about 10 feet tall literally bent at a 60-degree (or bigger) angle during the worst gusts, which were easily as strong as the peak sustained winds in Boca during Wilma. The squall line did produce hurricane-force wind gusts up to Category-2 intensity in the FL Panhandle, with an extreme 12' storm surge near Cedar Key (hence the famed "No-Name Storm" among locals, for some in the Big Bend thought that it was a late-season 'cane rather than a nor'easter), and even across the peninsula as it plowed into Central and South FL. Had Andrew not come along just some months earlier, the damage would have been worse, but never did I see such widespread damage to power lines and vegetation until Wilma. The 1993 Super-storm was what really set my interest in weather rolling.

[Ground Scouring]

That is a great video of Carla 1961, especially with the complete radar loop. What always stood out about Carla, besides its amazing radar presentation--better than any other Gulf strike save Camille 1969--up until landfall (compared to most recent Gulf landfalls) was the fact that it spawned a violent tornado. The tornado that is mentioned to have cut NW across Galveston Island was rated F4 and actually leveled buildings, though it occurred within a few hours of landfall and there was dispute as to whether hurricane winds initially weakened the leveled buildings. Only Hurricane Hilda (1964) is the other Atlantic hurricane to have produced a violent F4 tornado, near Larose, LA.

[NeffsvilleWx]

Being glued to TWC as Hugo bore down on the carolina's and having my mom read me newspaper headlines about it at the ripe old age of 4.

[Teru Teru Bozu]

Being glued to TWC as Hugo bore down on the carolina's and having my mom read me newspaper headlines about it at the ripe old age of 4.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. John M.F. Hope.