Ralph Wiggum Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 Still have 2 dvds of footage including forecasts from Dave Schwartz on TWC calling for a "bomb going off on the East Coast" seven days prior to the storm. You just knew even that far in advance based on the pattern and disturbances coming thru that something 'different' was going to hit somewhere on the East Coast. I will never forget the heaviest band being progged for days to remain South of Philly, then with around 36 hours to go before the storm, the track shifted North to bullseye us and the qpf progs went off the charts. I still get chills just thinking about it. 30.7" later and it's in the record books likely never to be broken by one single storm in our lifetimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 I was only 5 at the time and wouldn't say I vividly remember it but I know this was the storm that got me interested in weather. I remember the snow being up to my head and being able to sled down the snow pile at the end of my street from the plow..As for the storm itself, I don't really remember much of it except being out of school. Damn I'm old now.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Wiggum Posted January 6, 2016 Author Share Posted January 6, 2016 While walking around during the height of the Blizzard, I remember sanitation snow plows getting stuck and being abandoned. It was at that point I just looked around, realized how intense things were, and just took it all in knowing this was an extremely rare event unfolding. Sent from my LG-V410 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluescat1 Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 Ralph I had to fly out of Philly to Denver to go skiing the day after the storm. A PA Trooper was killed on I 95 and traffic was backed up for miles. We missed our flight and I still find it hard to believe we were still able to get out that same day after the Airport was closed for 3 days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ltrain Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 Still have 2 dvds of footage including forecasts from Dave Schwartz on TWC calling for a "bomb going off on the East Coast" seven days prior to the storm. You just knew even that far in advance based on the pattern and disturbances coming thru that something 'different' was going to hit somewhere on the East Coast. I will never forget the heaviest band being progged for days to remain South of Philly, then with around 36 hours to go before the storm, the track shifted North to bullseye us and the qpf progs went off the charts. I still get chills just thinking about it. 30.7" later and it's in the record books likely never to be broken by one single storm in our lifetimes. Any chance you ccould put those on YouTube? There isn't too much WC coverage of the blizzard of 96 on there. That would be awesome to be able to see your footage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hurricane Agnes Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 I remember earlier that week, KYW (using Accuweather) was talking about maybe 2 - 4". As we got closer to the weekend, the ranges got bigger and bigger... And during the storm, I remember watching TWC as they kept updating the snow maps with more and more colors as the totals were expected to get bigger and bigger. The one thing that caught my attention was that the temps were pretty low during the storm... ~23F IIRC, so it was definitely a powdery snow very different from the heavy wet slop many of us were used to. I had no garage then and I expected the car to be buried but based on where I parked it (SW side) and the winds, the car was completely free of snow except for a powdery inch or so on the front bumper! The streets were clogged with abandoned cars after the plows gave up. Eventually there were 6 ft walls along the main arteries. I also remember PA issued a state of emergency and travel ban for non-emergency vehicles during the storm or the operator would be fined something like $400. And then a few weeks later, the temperatures soar, the rains pour, and the floods roar. I remember some large tree that got wedged in the arch of one of the train bridges that go over the Schuylkill along the river drives. It was stuck near the top of the bridge arch too showing how far the river had crested. And it stayed there for months and months and was finally removed later in the year. In addition, the walls of snow had high water lines left on them when the river receded. This was also the storm where they realized that dumping excess snow into the portion of the river running through downtown wasn't a good idea (aside from the salt contamination, it clogged the river itself). Who would have thought that any season would surpass the 1995-1996 winter season in terms of snow? But along came 2010-2011 & 2013-2014. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTA66 Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 The blizzard of '96 will always remain my all time favorite snowstorm. It had everything going for it -- the accumulations, the low temps, the winds, the long duration. PDII came close, but just not quite the event Jan 96 was. Just a real quick story ... The Saturday morning before the storm, I was aware that the forecasts were changing (as any weenie would). I ran into a friend and mentioned how we may end up with a foot or more of snow the next day. He was still listening to local media outlets who hadn't caught on yet and was only expecting 1"-3". He looked at me like I was totally crazy. Turns out "a foot or more" was way underdone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSky Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 Great storm with my deepest snow, but the wind was lacking, I complained at the time that it didn't compare to the drifts of 78,79 PDII also no strong wind and snow intensity. Were I have lived nothing has matched the drifting intensity of the late 70's storms. Only the late February 2010 11" storm has had that level of wind but the snow was wet so drifting was minimal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quakertown needs snow Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 i still work at the same place since then, yikes. it sucked it was gone a week later with rain and warmth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Wiggum Posted January 6, 2016 Author Share Posted January 6, 2016 Any chance you ccould put those on YouTube? There isn't too much WC coverage of the blizzard of 96 on there. That would be awesome to be able to see your footage. I'm not the most computer savvy guy but if I get the chance, I would love to share some of the footage. Keep in mind the original was a crappy VHS version, so parts are fairly rough. I will see what I can do and post a link in the next week or so when I finally have some downtime to work on uploading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwilson Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Best storm ever. As a 10-year-old kid getting a whole week off from school was a dream. Still '09-'10 my favorite week of winter overall. That week in February was just incredible. I think my favorite overall winter has been within the past five years. I'm still not sure if I can rate one mega storm or the constant snow higher. I do enjoy having a "white winter," but really nothing beats that week of tracking leading up to a historical snowfall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birds~69 Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 At a bar at 11:30am getting ready for the Philly/Dallas game. Maybe 2" on the ground or so. Once I left there was snow up/past the bumper....wind...blizzard. Am I correct? There was a "State of Emergency" issued during the afternoon or earlier? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacChump Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 I was in school at Delaware...not much better than a blizzard in a college town...all your friends are around, bars are within walking distance...I can remember sticking a bunch of cases of beer in a snow bank and playing an enormous game of capture the flag with what seemed like my entire apartment complex...ivy hall Good lord I'm old Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bliz299 Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Here at the shore we didn't fair quite as well. I did get 8.6" of snow but ice and rain as well. Temp. was 21° at 7am, 32° 1pm, 35° 7pm. Sleet started mixing in about 11am and rain started mixing in as well around 5pm. At 10pm it was 36° and the wind was ENE41mphG62mph with sleet & rain. At 8:24pm had a gust of 78mph(I was getting RedSky's share). Temp. dropped shortly after midnight(8th) and I picked up another 1.4" of snow. The wind on the 7th was fierce with numerous afternoon-evening gusts 50mph+. I was not a happy camper at all getting "only" 10" of snow. Sounds great now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 I was in school at Delaware...not much better than a blizzard in a college town...all your friends are around, bars are within walking distance...I can remember sticking a bunch of cases of beer in a snow bank and playing an enormous game of capture the flag with what seemed like my entire apartment complex...ivy hall Good lord I'm old haha, I have the same exact memories except at millersville in 09-10 with the back to back monsters in february. seems like yesterday... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hurricane Agnes Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Great storm with my deepest snow, but the wind was lacking, I complained at the time that it didn't compare to the drifts of 78,79 That winter of '78 was when some cop was chasing a car through the snow ended up slamming into my mother's new car. I had come home from a ski trip at Big Boulder to see the whole side of it dented in (the city did reimburse). That one '79 storm (I was senior in HS) allowed us to make a huge snowman that became a tourist attraction on the street - people would literally walk or drive by and take pictures of it. That year made up for the ugly '72 - 73 winter. Kids just standing around with sleds and no snow. Even during part of '74, I remember an uncle wanting to take us over to Burholme Park that winter but that was a no-go because it was completely bare - nothing but grass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenmsav6810 Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 I was very young when this storm hit. Impressive storm. It even spooked my first word "wow!" out of me when I looked out the window and saw 36" of the white stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Reilly Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Here at the shore we didn't fair quite as well. I did get 8.6" of snow but ice and rain as well. Temp. was 21° at 7am, 32° 1pm, 35° 7pm. Sleet started mixing in about 11am and rain started mixing in as well around 5pm. At 10pm it was 36° and the wind was ENE41mphG62mph with sleet & rain. At 8:24pm had a gust of 78mph(I was getting RedSky's share). Temp. dropped shortly after midnight(8th) and I picked up another 1.4" of snow. The wind on the 7th was fierce with numerous afternoon-evening gusts 50mph+. I was not a happy camper at all getting "only" 10" of snow. Sounds great now! Yes I do remember there was a lot of lift and warm air was being pulled into the storm even to the point of having thunderstorms inland with the very heavy snow with temps pushing 27-29 even in Delaware County... Just and amazing storm!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mville2005 Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 This storm remains my favorite. I was in high school...freshman I think. I just remember the snow totals kept going up in the forecast...like the morning before they were calling for 2-4...then it kept going up from there. The weather channel was at its peak too...i watched it religiously...and the old local on the 8s'...memories. The thunder snow was awesome...I remember hearing some sleet hitting the window...but didn't hinder the totals in my area (Lower Moreland) It was after this storm my parents broke down and bought a snow blower. We were going out every half hour and shoveling to try and stay ahead of the storm...didn't work. haha Here are some TV clips from youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDMEzomBTNw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikeymac5306 Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 At a bar at 11:30am getting ready for the Philly/Dallas game. Maybe 2" on the ground or so. Once I left there was snow up/past the bumper....wind...blizzard. Am I correct? There was a "State of Emergency" issued during the afternoon or earlier? Correct. We had one of our fire trucks break down right on 202. Had to tow it back to the station with our rescue truck. As soon as we got back there was already a State of Emergency in place. I went into work to shovel the snow off the roofs of our buildings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birds~69 Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Correct. We had one of our fire trucks break down right on 202. Had to tow it back to the station with our rescue truck. As soon as we got back there was already a State of Emergency in place. I went into work to shovel the snow off the roofs of our buildings. Ok. I thought so. When I went out to watch the game late morning I don't think it was issued or I wouldn't have gone out. It had to be sometime in the afternoon. When I drove home around 4pm....a cop told me (us) to get the hell off the road a SOE was in effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluescat1 Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 http://www.nj.com/weather/index.ssf/2016/01/blizzard_of_96_relive_the_monster_storm_that_buried_nj_photos.html#0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthDoppler Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 The shorter guy is 5' 6", the taller guy about 6'. The snowblower used meant that the snowbank was hardly higher than what was in the yard. (it really threw the snow a long ways...also note the edge is actually chopped a little lower because I was using a shovel to knock the snow down while my dad used the snow blower) Mailbox was about chest height on me, 5' 7". This was of course some snowbank, and after the 8" that fell a few days later. About 45" in the yard! (that was after the blizzard, after compacting, the depth wasn't much different after the second, smaller storm, just denser.) We had a good 10"+ in the yard before the storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSky Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Has anybody else seen the irony of today's parallel ECM and 18z GFS depict a near clone of the Jan 96 storm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Reilly Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Has anybody else seen the irony of today's parallel ECM and 18z GFS depict a near clone of the Jan 96 storm? Oh Yes I have air almost identical hmmm should have told the GFS it is 10 days late to the date!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Di Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I recall Sat being a fine day was out running around and the forecasts were calling for snow but not a blizzard at that time. Luckily had a garage at the time so put the car away that night.. Went to the neighbors Sunday to watch Eagles\Dallas, and neighbor said to me that afternoon, "you won't be getting out of here tomorrow" I worked for an oil company at the time so we would always try to get in to work but with the SOE only the truck drivers who were allowed on the roads reported to work that Monday. Nice to have a snow day and dig out. Tuesday am it was still bad. I drove to work with a shovel in the back seat and parts of Rte 1 and Rte 202 still had drifts in the travel lanes. Anyone here old enough to remember Feb. 83? Only time in my life I witnessed thunder\lightning. This is etched in my mind forever- the sight of that while pouring snow! These 2 storms are most memorable as is 09-10 season and 13-14. Hopeful we can squeak out 1 in this powerful El Nino season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birds~69 Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I recall Sat being a fine day was out running around and the forecasts were calling for snow but not a blizzard at that time. Luckily had a garage at the time so put the car away that night.. Went to the neighbors Sunday to watch Eagles\Dallas, and neighbor said to me that afternoon, "you won't be getting out of here tomorrow" I worked for an oil company at the time so we would always try to get in to work but with the SOE only the truck drivers who were allowed on the roads reported to work that Monday. Nice to have a snow day and dig out. Tuesday am it was still bad. I drove to work with a shovel in the back seat and parts of Rte 1 and Rte 202 still had drifts in the travel lanes. Anyone here old enough to remember Feb. 83? Only time in my life I witnessed thunder\lightning. This is etched in my mind forever- the sight of that while pouring snow! These 2 storms are most memorable as is 09-10 season and 13-14. Hopeful we can squeak out 1 in this powerful El Nino season. Oh yeah....I was a young lad. I remember they kept upping the totals every hour or so. (KYW 1060) They were way off on that one initially to start the day. Think I ended up with 21.3". Could be wrong but that amount sticks in my head. Nice drifts as well. I've been lucky with lightning/thunder snow events. Seen/heard it 4 times (different events) and 3 were at night which is even cooler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hurricane Agnes Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Anyone here old enough to remember Feb. 83? Only time in my life I witnessed thunder\lightning. This is etched in my mind forever- the sight of that while pouring snow! These 2 storms are most memorable as is 09-10 season and 13-14. Hopeful we can squeak out 1 in this powerful El Nino season. I was a senior in college but not down here - was up at UMASS but got hit up there too. In general, western MA where I was would get some storms but eastern MA by Boston seemed to cash in much more. I did record thundersnow in my little diary back in the early '70s. It was one of those things where the temp was up in the mid-50s earlier in the week and then came the pouring rain and gusty winds, and the precipitation suddenly changed to sleet, and then snow - complete with thunder and lightning. I think it was in the evening because I sortof remember looking out the window at the street lights and saw the snow and flashes of lightning. My diary had the entry across 2 pages - both Feb. 6 - Feb. 7, 1973. I even drew a picture of a cloud with the entry, complete with an angry face and surrounded by rain scribble, hail balls, sleet slivers, and snow blobs. Apparently a couple days later, the south got nailed with a huge snow storm - one for their record books (and that was a strong El Nino-influenced winter). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heisy Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 This storm remains my favorite. I was in high school...freshman I think. I just remember the snow totals kept going up in the forecast...like the morning before they were calling for 2-4...then it kept going up from there. The weather channel was at its peak too...i watched it religiously...and the old local on the 8s'...memories. The thunder snow was awesome...I remember hearing some sleet hitting the window...but didn't hinder the totals in my area (Lower Moreland) It was after this storm my parents broke down and bought a snow blower. We were going out every half hour and shoveling to try and stay ahead of the storm...didn't work. haha Here are some TV clips from youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDMEzomBTNw Hey. I went to Lomo too! Graduated 2004. lol.....Lived on Philmont Avenue at the corner of Maple & Philmont during this storm I'm sure you know where that is it is right across the street from the big park on Philmont! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchnick Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 I recall Sat being a fine day was out running around and the forecasts were calling for snow but not a blizzard at that time. Luckily had a garage at the time so put the car away that night.. Went to the neighbors Sunday to watch Eagles\Dallas, and neighbor said to me that afternoon, "you won't be getting out of here tomorrow" I worked for an oil company at the time so we would always try to get in to work but with the SOE only the truck drivers who were allowed on the roads reported to work that Monday. Nice to have a snow day and dig out. Tuesday am it was still bad. I drove to work with a shovel in the back seat and parts of Rte 1 and Rte 202 still had drifts in the travel lanes. Anyone here old enough to remember Feb. 83? Only time in my life I witnessed thunder\lightning. This is etched in my mind forever- the sight of that while pouring snow! These 2 storms are most memorable as is 09-10 season and 13-14. Hopeful we can squeak out 1 in this powerful El Nino season. I'm old enough for 83. I was living a few miles south of BWI then. The lightning and thunder wete downright spectacular. It started just after noon and lasted much of the daylight hours. From noon to 1pm BWI reported 4" of snow, which has got to be the 1-hour snowfall record for us. And it was a crazy thunder because you'd see the bright, white flash, there was an abnormally long pause before you heard the thunder, and then it would just continue with a rolling effect that only slowly dissipated. We had some thunder in PDII, but nothing like the 83 storm. I'm certain I'll never experience thunder snow like that ever again. I think I need some time alone now.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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