As the Northeast Braces for Their Blizzard; We Have One of Our Own to Celebrate on the Same Date 1/26; Back in '78!

[wxhstn74]

http://weatherhistorian.blogspot.com/2015/01/as-northeast-braces-for-their-blizzard.html

[Hoosier]

The storm I'd most like to see repeated in my lifetime.  27 consecutive hourly observations with visibility of a quarter mile or less at LAF (0 vis at times)...just absurd. 

[dmc76]

The storm I'd most like to see repeated in my lifetime. 27 consecutive hourly observations with visibility of a quarter mile or less at LAF (0 vis at times)...just absurd.

I can only imagine how angry SEMI posters would have been.

[Chicago WX]

The storm I'd most like to see repeated in my lifetime.  27 consecutive hourly observations with visibility of a quarter mile or less at LAF (0 vis at times)...just absurd. 

 

Yep, most definitely.

 

METAR KLAF 260900Z 27030G38KT 0SM SN -BLSN OVC/// M16/M20 A2918 RMK SLP888 T11601199

[Hoosier]

Yep, most definitely.

 

METAR KLAF 260900Z 27030G38KT 0SM SN -BLSN OVC/// M16/M20 A2918 RMK SLP888 T11601199

 

 

Granted it wasn't the biggest snowstorm around here, but good enough and the meteorological characteristics make up for that.

 

Man it would be fun to see this board with something like that bearing down. 

[Chicago WX]

Granted it wasn't the biggest snowstorm around here, but good enough and the meteorological characteristics make up for that.

 

Man it would be fun to see this board with something like that bearing down. 

 

Yeah, the winds and the whole dynamic of the storm is what intrigues me. Foot or so of snow which fell would be good enough...not that measuring it accurately was (or would be) possible.

[London snowsquall]

I wonder who on this board actually witnessed it firsthand?   I know I did, and it's hard to believe it's been 37 yrs and we've had nothing come close locally to real blizzard conditions that have been sustained for hours like that one.   We had a few in the '70s.   Now seems to be a distant memory.

[Chinook]

Area Paralyzed By Blizzard

 

http://greatlakes.salsite.com/blade_jan_26_1978.jpg

[DaveNay]

Lots of fun for a seven year old me. 

 

oops...that was '79 (for Chicago)

[IWXwx]

I wonder who on this board actually witnessed it firsthand?   I know I did, and it's hard to believe it's been 37 yrs and we've had nothing come close locally to real blizzard conditions that have been sustained for hours like that one.   We had a few in the '70s.   Now seems to be a distant memory.

 

I lived it. I was 20 at the time. I've posted several newspaper clippings and pics here before.

[radionicist]

I wonder who on this board actually witnessed it firsthand?   I know I did, and it's hard to believe it's been 37 yrs and we've had nothing come close locally to real blizzard conditions that have been sustained for hours like that one.   We had a few in the '70s.   Now seems to be a distant memory.

 

I did. I was a couple months short of 13 years old in January 1978. My Dad worked as a supervisor for the Putnam County Road Department, and he got the phone call to come to work on the evening of the 25th. I asked him if school would be canceled the next day and he said "You won't be going to school for a while." We next saw him five days later, when he was able to get home with a road grader. He spent twelve nights at work, and we didn't return to school for two and a half weeks.

 

Fortunately, power stayed on at my house, but much of Putnam County was without power. An elderly couple that farmed about six miles from us lived in their car for three days; they had no power and no heat in the house, but they had an above-ground gas tank. They survived by running the car heater, getting out only to retrieve food, use the bathroom, and refill the car gas tank when it ran low. A convoy of rescue vehicles was able to reach them, finally, and bring them to shelter in town.

 

My mother took her first snowmobile and airplane ride during the storm. She was a home health nurse, and one of her patients about 15 miles away became seriously ill. The local Fire Department picked her up on a snowmobile and transported her to a local grass airstrip used by crop dusters, where a ski-equipped Piper picked her up and flew her to her patient (and back, of course). She was the hit of the county after her story was published in the local paper.

 

Putnam County is quite flat, having once been part of the Great Black Swamp, and large roadside drainage ditches accompany many of the highways. One unfortunate driver put his small car into a ditch along State Route 108, abandoning it to find shelter. Snow drifts covered it completely, and a couple of weeks passed before they could find it again. The drifting was so severe that the Ohio National Guard brought in several bulldozers and tanks equipped with snow blades to open up the highways. On the day they left, my Dad took me for a ride in his pickup truck to see the sights, and I remember getting out at intersections to check for oncoming cars - the plowed roads had become a maze of snow tunnels, and there was no way to see cars approaching on side roads.

 

I recall walking up crusted snow drifts right on to the roof of a neighbor's ranch house and jumping off into drifts on the other side.

 

As a kid, it was fun to witness, if a bit boring after a while. We had a serious case of cabin fever by mid-February, and the ice and slush had frozen so firmly that driving around even then was like driving on logs. I'm glad I saw it, and hope to never see another, 

[snowlover2]

I wonder who on this board actually witnessed it firsthand?   I know I did, and it's hard to believe it's been 37 yrs and we've had nothing come close locally to real blizzard conditions that have been sustained for hours like that one.   We had a few in the '70s.   Now seems to be a distant memory.

I was only a year and a half old so technically i witnessed it but don't remember a thing from it.

[Indystorm]

I was living in the Butler University area of Indpls at the time.  I had hoped to get back up to Kokomo and made a phone call to the NWS and was told that they were just about to issue a blizzard warning.  Needless to say I stayed in Indy. That storm and the Chicago Jan. blizzard of 1967 are still my two most memorable snowstorms.

[wxhstn74]

As some of you know by my wxhistorian blog, I was with the NWS for 37 years.  I not only was in the NWS at the time of the '78 Blizzard, I worked it, on the best shift possible - Midnights 01/26/78. We had just moved the DTW WFO to ARB that month and I had to drive from NW Detroit to ARB and back that night/morning.

 

I knew something was wrong when I woke up from my nap before work. I had set the alarm early, figuring I'd have snow to drive out to work. We had a WSW going but when i woke up it was STILL raining. Temps were in the mid 30s and a moderate rain fell my entire route to ARB. The office was located in the Fed Bldg on Liberty/4th while my parents home was in the Rosedale Pk area in Detroit (near Outer Dr/Evergreen...so on a good day you're looking @ about a 45 min drive - and why i was moving that upcoming weekend (yep I know how to pick .em). LOL

 

Anyway, when I got to work the office was buzzin about what was going on and...WHY? The low in the southeast was deepening over Georgia, while the second low and Arctic blast was heading thru the western lakes. Everyone was astounded and confused at the same time - WTF was going on? Yes by that day, phasing had been anticipated and low expected to rapidly deepen but still further east. Hence; the WSW already in effect for SE Michigan - but it was still raining over the corner! As the incredible upper jet streak/tropapause fold occured in the Southeast, a terrific negative tilt trof was estabilishing itself from the Upper Lakes to the Southeast! The low deepened rapidly and moved NNW- not toward W Penn as expected - but N Ohio/SW Ontario & SE Mich!!! One of the forecasters tracking her, who was a riot to work with yells JHC!!! Someone's gonna get clobbered ( I still use this to this day)! The press falls were off the chart...literally! WSO Detroit had to adjust their barograph (station pressure) trace up to account for the drop and deduct the difference or it would have been literally, off the chart!

 

From mid morning /2-3am/ on, you were in meteorological AWE! I say that becase you sat back and watched this monster spin it's giagantic winter web. I thought my god, the wx map looks like a huge spider web from Minn to the East Coast...and s-se to the gulf states. Then, just like when a torpedo is shot out of a sub; the forecaster yells Holy Sheit; she's heading for US!!!!! Sure enough, looking at the pressure fall group /app/, many that had no code for the plumetting pressure falls /just 99/...a track was evolving toward central and northern Ohio, Sw Ontario and Se Michigan. At the same time, the very strong Arctic front was plowing se across the Lakes Region as the storm began to take shape, as though it was being sucked in to the "spider's winter web"!

 

-Wxhstn74

[Sidewinder]

Thanks for sharing this Wxhstn74. Was too young to remember much, except snow being up to my neck when I went out to play in it.

[Hoosier]

Thanks for sharing your personal account Bill.  Always cool to hear from someone who worked it.

[IWXwx]

Thanks for sharing Bill. I was a stupid 20 year old kid who only had a passing interest in weather at that time. All I knew was sensible weather as a result of this bomb almost didn't make sense.

[Whitelakeroy]

I remember that storm all to well and I was a 7 year old weather guru. 

 

It all started when watching Star Wars on TV and during the Tatooine bar scene the NWS issued a Winter Storm Watch with the message scrolling at the bottom.   Used to have a copy of it on Beta until the machine died in the 90s.

 

Then finally the warning next came out as I watch Mal Sillars on TV and we were expected to be buried!!

 

The storm started with several inches of snow fell but by morning rain was falling and our school district did NOT to be closed (long story but they had a strict policy they followed at our district back then) though many had in the area.  Reports of 2'+ of snow to our North, West, South and East in the evening news.  I felt like a kid that just got sucker punched by the playground bully. 

 

While looking back it was great to be part of an historic storm.  I recall the incredible winds.  But in all honestly I don't at all look back with fond memories of this storm.  It was a complete disaster for a weather guru in SEMI and still to this day my #1 worst IMBY snowstorm failure.

[Powerball]

Yeah, from a meteorological perspective, this storm is indeed the standard ATT of the worst mother nature can dish out.

But from a snowstorm perspective, I don't think there would be nearly as many happy campers around here if it took place today.

People seem to have more pleasant (or not-so pleasant) snowstorm memories in Detroit of the extremely localized 1974 snowstorm that dumped between 18-24" of heavy wet snow (with only a bit of mixing issues at the very end). I'd bet on this type of snowstorm happening again before another 1978 blizzard...