Time to think cold. What is your favorite snow memory?

[ldub23]

It  doesnt  have to be a  big  whopping snow, just  something  that sticks  out as  odd  or  unusual. I  have  3

1-Many years ago i was  out in the  back yard taking  out the trash. It was  33 and  misty/foggy out. No mention of snow in the forecast as far as  i can remember. Anyway, all of a sudden these  huge  glops  of snow started to come  down. They were so large you  could  hear them hit the ground. Lasted about  20 minutes.

2-The forecast was for  rain possibly  mixed with snow with no accumulations. Was  in 1st period  in HS and  looking  out the window and the rain kept  getting whiter. Soon enough it was  heavy wet snow and we were  let  out right away. Ended  up with a foot.

3-A  Noreaster went  by and  after  it the wind stayed nne with low  clouds and temps falling into the  low  20's. It  looked  like a thick fog  but these  tiny individual ice  needles were falling. It  lasted all day and they were so small they only accumulated  in corners where the wind blew them 2 or  3 inches deep. Never seen anything  like  it since.

 

 

 

[jewell2188]

2016 blizzard….classic setup and days lead time of model agreement. Models never really wavering from an historic storm. 

[TSG]

The December 2009 blizzard is seared into my memory. That winter as a whole is really. It was my senior year of HS, living in Falls Church at that point. I had faint memories of the '96 blizzard and clear ones of 02/03 and the Feb 2006 save, but that was just something I had never really witnessed. I think that storm is the one responsible for setting me on the path to weather weenie. I started checking out weather forums around then. And that was all before the onslaught that was to come in Feb lol

[32º]

2087, after shoveling heavy snow, smelling the turkey roasting in the oven before I even reached the front door!!!!!

 

 

[Jrlg1181]

Living in northwest Albemarle county in Browns Cove up in the 'holler'  in March 1993 as a teenager, born and raised there... Sleeping on the living room sofa near the wood stove listening to the wind roar down out of the mountains during the blizzard of 93 with no electric power. With the smell of " coal oil " mountain/country term for kerosene lamps burning... Really was a old time feel... 

[Jrlg1181]

4 hours ago, TSG said:

The December 2009 blizzard is seared into my memory. That winter as a whole is really. It was my senior year of HS, living in Falls Church at that point. I had faint memories of the '96 blizzard and clear ones of 02/03 and the Feb 2006 save, but that was just something I had never really witnessed. I think that storm is the one responsible for setting me on the path to weather weenie. I started checking out weather forums around then. And that was all before the onslaught that was to come in Feb lol

I went to work that 2009 Friday afternoon like a fool, got trapped on Pantops on rt 250 in the work truck... Around midnight we all got word that we had to park near what is now Kohr brothers ice cream and walk back to the building in a blizzard !

[09-10 analogy]

Late Friday night, December 18, 2009. Around 10 or so. With an inch or so on the ground, and a LOT more on the way (little did I know then, given the whole winter, how much that would be), I walked into Glover-Archibald Park in NW DC. Had Tom Waits on my headphones (this was before I-Phones, or at least before I had one.). On a slight ridge 100 or so feet a way, six or seven deer were looking at me. I looked back. We stayed there more or less motionless -- I wasn't that cold and, evidently, neither were the deer -- as the snow fell and began to pick up in intensity. I'm far from the most spiritual guy in the world, but that was a truly Zen moment I'll never forget. I've posted this several times here, and for that I apologize, but really ... it was just a moment of perfect peace in a (sometimes) crazy world. 

But, hell, there are a bunch of memories wound up in snowstorms: 1983, the first one I got drunk in; 1987, Veterans Day, walking to meet a buddy at a bar downtown while looking at people with faces of pure shock that something like that could be happening at that time of year; 1996, planning our wedding with my girlfriend (that wouldn't happen for some years afterwards) at a bar in Takoma Park; 2010 #2 (digging a snow trench in our yard so big my 6 year old daughter and I could both easily fit in); 2016 (that Saturday afternoon, true blizzard conditions, where visibility in Friendship Heights couldn't have been much more than a couple hundred yards and the snow and wind were like being in a great big snow globe shaken by some Titan out of Greek mythology).

[dailylurker]

Boxing day. Oh, wait. Wrong thread 

[mappy]

This one is easy - 12/19/2009 

[nw baltimore wx]

Best snow memory is ‘83 blizzard and standing outside in absolute deluge of snow listening to the huge flakes hit the ground and being scared to death by simultaneous bolt of lightning and crack of thunder. ‘79 blizzard is right up there too.

Best cold memory is the entire winter of ‘76-77. Not much snow but what fell was there forever. Skating and sledding for an eternity.

[RDM]

1.  Blizzard of 78 in Ohio and the wind and flash freeze.  Will never forget the unrelenting wind.  Only got about 14" of snow, but the wind closed everything around us for days until the snow blowers from Wright Patterson AFB and Dayton Airport got out into the remote areas to clear a path through the drifts.  Almost became a desperate situation when the grocery stores ran out of food.  Was an awaking to how precarious our supply chain dependencies are.  

2.  2016 and having 33" in our backyard.

3.  18/19 Dec 2009 - Best birthday present ever and awesome welcome home gift from 3 years in Thailand and no snow.

4.  1990 in Sas Fee Switzerland - 3 meters in 3 days - thunder snow followed by howitzer shots to reduce the avalanche risk.  Roads were closed for days - and the Swiss were like "no big deal".  

[ldub23]

1 hour ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Best snow memory is ‘83 blizzard and standing outside in absolute deluge of snow listening to the huge flakes hit the ground and being scared to death by simultaneous bolt of lightning and crack of thunder. ‘79 blizzard is right up there too.

Best cold memory is the entire winter of ‘76-77. Not much snow but what fell was there forever. Skating and sledding for an eternity.

Same  here. Back in 76 sept and  oct were cold with early  frosts and freezes. Nove and dec warmed  up some  but around Christmas the true Arctic front  came  in. Looked like a summer squall line. Got a dusting  of snow with the front and then another  2 inches an hour  later with a super  heavy squall. That was all the snow we got  here that winter  but  it  lasted  in the shade  until the thaw came  in mid Feb.

[Stormfly]

76-77 winter for cold.  Not much snow.  Bay frozen.  People driving on the Inner Harbor!  My cousins lived in a home in Parkville with a flat roof which allowed water to freeze and at night the ice would crack so loud it sounded like someone throwing bricks on the roof!  Could not sleep at all with that nonsense!

PDI - 1979.  Awesome storm.

Let us not forget the fall snow in 1979 that interrupted the Orioles vs. Pirates world series game!

Winter of 81-82 was very cold with some good snow events including a blizzard warning for us with clear skies due to strong winds and blowing snow on ground which drifted roads closed.

Feb 11, 1983 had amazing rates, all snow, took days to dig out.

Jan 25, 1985 super white out "thundersnow squall line"!

Nov 1987 with thundersnow.  Was outside shoveling and the sky flickered a few times, thought it was power lines but heard the thunder.  Thunder is no 60Hz!

Superstorm March 1993.  If it weren't for the "slug-o-sleet" with that one we'd set a (snowfall) record for sure.  Impressive winds too!

93-94 "mini ice age" winter.  I used over 3 weeks of annual leave from work by March for not being able to get in due to ice and snow!

Veteran's Day 1995 high wind to snow event.

Ice storm of Jan 1999.  Over 400k BGE customers without power in freezing conditions.

Jan 25, 2000 "caught with pants down" snowstorm!

PDII - Feb 2003.  What a month Feb 2003 was!

Feb 2006 storm.  What a mess that created with power line damage.

December 2009.  Thought for sure at just six days before Christmas with 19" on the ground we'd have a white Christmas.  Nope!

Back to back blizzards of Feb 2010.  Record setter and IMHO the most impactful week for us in a lifetime here.

Jan 26, 2011.  Very high impact event, >240k w/o power.  Flash freeze and much more snow than forecast. 

2013-2014 winter had lots of good ones.  The ice storm of Feb 2014 hit us particularly bad.  1/2" to 3/4" accretion widespread.  Lots of power outages and widespread tree damage.

2015 had bitter cold but a shortage of snow.

Jan 23, 2016 blizzard.  Most snow in a single event (37" IMBY).  Amazing that we saw this coming for so long and models locked out so far.  Incredible!  Was surreal driving Wed night (when storm didn't start until Friday evening!) seeing those big signs on interstates scrolling BLIZZARD WARNING!  Was I in Maryland???!

There's been a few events since the 2016 but none with high impact.

2018 was full of disappointing storms.

The most recent would be December 2020.  We had good rates but unfortunately the ZR lasted too long keeping totals down and making a mess of things to clean up.
That's what was amazing about the 2016 blizzard.  It snowed 100% and HARD.  No mixing for us.

All that said, I'd have to say the back to back blizzards along with Jan 2016 were probably the best for us.

 

 

[Rhino16]

December 9-10 2018

All of the local stations had pretty low accumulation numbers, but they started to go up as the snow didn’t seem to be slowing down. The next morning there were 10+” on the ground, and school was out for 3 days. Rest of the winter was meh if I remember correctly.

Before that: 2009-10 were great, and 14-15 too. Both I can remember playing outside after the bigger storms.

I can’t remember much else, as I’m not that old.

[Its a Breeze]

Nov. '87 - as that's what got the meteorological wheels turning.

2009/2010 - for obvious reasons

There's a New Years snow (late 80s? early 90s?) too. It was back we we used to get 2-4" snows. But it was absolutely perfect. Woke up in the new year with a fresh coating.

[BlizzardNole]

Best big event:  Blizzard of '79 in hardest hit Calvert County.  Was like a hurricane of snow where at times we could not see the woods less than 100 feet from the house.  Total was 30-36 with 6-plus foot drifts.

Best smaller event:  Jan. 1978 in Kettering, MD with forecast of rain developing in the evening and continuing overnight, possibly beginning as a brief period of snow.  Got a totally unexpected front end thump with about 6 inches in just 2-3 hours, then drizzle after.  Best positive bust ever

[nw baltimore wx]

Oh, Kettering…

[BlizzardNole]

4 hours ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Oh, Kettering…

I was passing by there last June and went in look around and saw my old house at the intersection of Kettering and Bennington Drives.  There used to be a big open field right next to us in the 70s that we had fun times in.  Now it's all houses.  I noticed a lot of retiree-aged people around and the yards looked really nice.  Older folks love the gardening!

[NoVaWx]

All three big storms in 09-10 were great, and also the February storm in 03 was very fun with the longer duration. Missed the blizzard of 2016, was ironically in Denver where they got around 6 inches at around the same time but nothing like back in Virginia 2’ plus. 

[Jersey Andrew]

Veterans Day 1987. I was 10 years old and school was first delayed and then cancelled. My father and I went out to run some errands and it took us over three hours to get home in raging snowstorm leaving a foot of snow. No cell phones back then and my Mom was ready to call the hospitals if we had not gotten home soon.

[CAPE]

Too many.

All the ones listed obv. Dec 2009 is top simply because of how early in winter it occurred. 20" snowfalls don't happen often in the lowlands prior to mid Jan.

Other than the obvious events, one that stands out is the SB Sunday 1987 storm. Better for eastern areas, but that's where I am. That was actually my first winter here after living in Carroll county for most of my early years- and all I heard for months was it rarely snows over here! Anyway, the forecast was for 6-10, but ended up with well over a foot(16" I think), with plenty of drifting. There was still snow otg from the previous storm, but the 25th one was a much colder, powdery snow. That storm was way more enjoyable than 2016 here.

[87storms]

February 1987 surprise snow blitz.  Enormous flakes.

Greatest storm I've witnessed here?  2016.  As close to perfect as it gets here...to the point that I'm not sure we'll see another one like it unless we get a well timed Miller A/PV combo.

For hype?  Superstorm '93.  Great storm, but not the most memorable for snow...memorable for being able to walk on it, though (due to the period of sleet/ice in the afternoon).

Greatest winter?  Probably 2009/10, but 2013/14 was legit if you like wall to wall winter.

[CAPE]

15 minutes ago, 87storms said:

February 1987 surprise snow blitz.  Enormous flakes.

Greatest storm I've witnessed here?  2016.  As close to perfect as it gets here...to the point that I'm not sure we'll see another one like it unless we get a well timed Miller A/PV combo.

For hype?  Superstorm '93.  Great storm, but not the most memorable for snow...memorable for being able to walk on it, though (due to the period of sleet/ice in the afternoon).

Greatest winter?  Probably 2009/10, but 2013/14 was legit if you like wall to wall winter.

That one too. 12" of 32 deg wet paste here, while the southern part of the county was almost all rain. Some local DC forecasts had all rain here. Easton changed over towards the end.

Only event I can recall here where my area was literally on the line for a marginal temp event and it ended up all snow.

[nw baltimore wx]

4 hours ago, BlizzardNole said:

I was passing by there last June and went in look around and saw my old house at the intersection of Kettering and Bennington Drives.  There used to be a big open field right next to us in the 70s that we had fun times in.  Now it's all houses.  I noticed a lot of retiree-aged people around and the yards looked really nice.  Older folks love the gardening!

Yeah. I hung out with your brother in those fields until we stumbled across a copper head.  I lived on Bennington up the street from you. Great memories of that neighborhood.

[87storms]

4 hours ago, CAPE said:

That one too. 12" of 32 deg wet paste here, while the southern part of the county was almost all rain. Some local DC forecasts had all rain here. Easton changed over towards the end.

Only event I can recall here where my area was literally on the line for a marginal temp event and it ended up all snow.

Yea, it was impressive especially with the wet snow accumulating on the trees.  The next day looked like a winter wonderland.  If memory serves, I think schools were closed for a week in part due to the power outages.

[southmdwatcher]

The December 2009 blizzard was special and so was the 12 day span from January 30 2010 to February 10th 2010.....probably never again will we hit 4 straight overperformers with snow upon snow. Although, January and February 1996 was special in southern MD. We were hit good from the blizzard but nowhere near the jackpot, however southern MD hit several overperformers afterwards for 10 plus inches all snow on snow.

For straight up cold the Winter of 1976 and 77 was hands down the winner, first time ive seen ice fog. 1994 as cold as it was and so many ice events, comes a distant 2nd. 

 

Surprise snowfalls, PD1(Feb 79) was suppose to be an 8 inch snowfall and was triple or more than that by dawn with huge wind and rates here in southern MD......the number 1 snowfall ever down here. Visibility was as low as Ive seen for any local snow event ever. Hands down the best event for anyone who lived through it.

January 25th 2000 was another gigantic suprise snowfall that jackpots the eastern suburbs, just as Veterans Day 1987 was another DC and immediate eastern and southern suburbs jackpot on the thundersnows that day.  

As the Redskins were winning a Super Bowl  After the Redskins exciting postseason fell just short of the Super Bowl, we had a pair of double digit snowfalls early in 1987 that paralyzed the region and southern MD was the jackpot. Fun memories and we are once again due for some large events.

Superstorm 1993 was the most hyped storm, and it lived up to it's billing. We did not jackpot locally, however that was a rare, dangerous Winter/Spring event. I was in Richmond VA during this storm amd witnessed the low passing directly overhead. 

Richmond received 4 to 6 inches of snow overnight then changed over to windswept rain and temperatures in the 40s. As the low passed over the rain slackened and wind went calm as the sky brightened. 90 minutes later the roads were flash frozen as temperatures plunged back to the upper 10s with heavy snow and winds. One rare storm that delivered a major punch on the backside.

[CAPE]

7 hours ago, southmdwatcher said:

The December 2009 blizzard was special and so was the 12 day span from January 30 2010 to February 10th 2010.....probably never again will we hit 4 straight overperformers with snow upon snow. Although, January and February 1996 was special in southern MD. We were hit good from the blizzard but nowhere near the jackpot, however southern MD hit several overperformers afterwards for 10 plus inches all snow on snow.

For straight up cold the Winter of 1976 and 77 was hands down the winner, first time ive seen ice fog. 1994 as cold as it was and so many ice events, comes a distant 2nd. 

 

Surprise snowfalls, PD1(Feb 79) was suppose to be an 8 inch snowfall and was triple or more than that by dawn with huge wind and rates here in southern MD......the number 1 snowfall ever down here. Visibility was as low as Ive seen for any local snow event ever. Hands down the best event for anyone who lived through it.

January 25th 2000 was another gigantic suprise snowfall that jackpots the eastern suburbs, just as Veterans Day 1987 was another DC and immediate eastern and southern suburbs jackpot on the thundersnows that day.  

As the Redskins were winning a Super Bowl we had a pair of double digit snowfalls early in 1987 that paralyzed the region and southern MD was the jackpot. Fun memories and we are once again due for some large events.

Superstorm 1993 was the most hyped storm, and it lived up to it's billing. We did not jackpot locally, however that was a rare, dangerous Winter/Spring event. I was in Richmond VA during this storm amd witnessed the low passing directly overhead. 

Richmond received 4 to 6 inches of snow overnight then changed over to windswept rain and temperatures in the 40s. As the low passed over the rain slackened and wind went calm as the sky brightened. 90 minutes later the roads were flash frozen as temperatures plunged back to the upper 10s with heavy snow and winds. One rare storm that delivered a major punch on the backside.

This is the storm I mentioned in my post. Giants pummeled Denver in the 1987 SB. Washington pummeled them in Jan of 1988 lol.

[GramaxRefugee]

2 hours ago, CAPE said:

This is the storm I mentioned in my post. Giants pummeled Denver in the 1987 SB. Washington pummeled them in Jan of 1988 lol.

Yes, I used to get confused too... the Redskins won the 87 season in the 88 SB.  But... it was the 87 game (in L.A.) where DC mayor Barry was partying while Washington  struggled through the double snow. Long story.

[Terpeast]

The 09-10 and 1996 storms aside, my favorite childhood memory was the 1987 double whammy. That marked the beginning of my weeniehood. 

My mom has pics of me in the 1983 storm where the snow was higher than me, but I was too young to remember. 

[DanTheMan]

Ah has to be walking into my garage during the first night of Snowmageddon and hearing the wind howl against the house. Also the first boom of thunder during the Jan 2011 storm as rain changed over to a heavy wet paste was memorable.