January 1978

[KokomoWX]

Thanks for the maps, but those are from 1977. An impressive storm in its own right though.

The first link is to 1978 maps.

[buckeye]

http://www.dispatch....A1_J495SVR.html

another good article about it in the columbus dispatch. I remember hearing that a specie of bird was eradicated from Ohio by the blizzard....this article says there were a few species almost eradicated. Simply amazing.

also, interestingly, according to this story there was only 'hours' of advanced warning.

[Chicago WX]

The one I always hear about around here is the mid January blizzard of '79. Apparently it shut down I-80 from Des Moines to Chicago. Outside of that I don't know much about it. I guess a lot of residents in the QC ended up having to shovel off their roofs due to the immense snow pack after the storm. I was only 2 years old so obviously I don't remember it.

Edit: Just found this little tidbit from DVN... http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dvn/?n=01011979_brutalwinter

Fun fact: Jan 1979 was a high impact storm for NE IL. That winter as a whole, and it's incredibly snowy December and January, led to then Chicago mayor Michael Bilandic losing the primary election to Jane Byrne mostly due to the terrible job the city did in clearing/removing snow.

[cyclone77]

Fun fact: Jan 1979 was a high impact storm for NE IL. That winter as a whole, and it's incredibly snowy December and January, led to then Chicago mayor Michael Bilandic losing the primary election to Jane Byrne mostly due to the terrible job the city did in clearing/removing snow.

Interesting. It sure sounds like the 77-79 winters were beyond epic for many of our areas.

[baroclinic_instability]

The first link is to 1978 maps.

Thanks, I didn't even notice. What an amazing phase, and what an absolute beast of a negative tilt trough.

[baroclinic_instability]

The height field map and sheer size of the phased trough looks very similar to Superstorm 1993 with the exception Superstorm 1993 developed in the GOM.

[Chicago WX]

Interesting. It sure sounds like the 77-79 winters were beyond epic for many of our areas.

Probably not a better time in recorded history. Even continued into the early 80's in some form. Those were the days of global cooling talk.

[michsnowfreak]

I would kill to go back in time to relive the winter of '77-78. Hell, we outsnowed it in 2004-05, 2007-08, and 2008-09, but the blizzard, snowpack, not to mention tales and lore, has been unmatched since. Even the winter of 1981-82, with over a foot more snowfall and even deeper snowcover, plays second fiddle to 1977-78. Man, what I wouldnt give to have been around then (id even have to take a Saturday Night Fever-esque spin on the disco floor too lol).

All I have picture-wise is this polaroid my mom snapped and she wrote "beginning of blizzard, 1-26-78".

[Chicago WX]

I would kill to go back in time to relive the winter of '77-78. Hell, we outsnowed it in 2004-05, 2007-08, and 2008-09, but the blizzard, snowpack, not to mention tales and lore, has been unmatched since. Even the winter of 1981-82, with over a foot more snowfall and even deeper snowcover, plays second fiddle to 1977-78. Man, what I wouldnt give to have been around then (id even have to take a Saturday Night Fever-esque spin on the disco floor too lol).

All I have picture-wise is this polaroid my mom snapped and she wrote "beginning of blizzard, 1-26-78".

77-78 is where it's at for a good chunk of the Midwest. I guess I was lucky enough to be alive for it, albeit only 2 years old. Still, my parents tell me stories of lore from that winter and the following 78-79 season...and even of the brutal cold of 76-77. Truly a remarkable stretch of winters.

[Harry]

77-78 is where it's at for a good chunk of the Midwest. I guess I was lucky enough to be alive for it, albeit only 2 years old. Still, my parents tell me stories of lore from that winter and the following 78-79 season...and even of the brutal cold of 76-77. Truly a remarkable stretch of winters.

Between This, Jan 79 and Jan 67 ( ALL 3 each dropped 18+ here ) is probably why there has not been a bomb since here. lol Well not on the level of these 3 events. Granted Jan 99 came close and may have beat out Jan 79 perhaps as far as snowfall totals go but 99 had help via added lake stuff following the storm. Both Jan 67 and 78 were 24+ here and i know Jan 99 did not hit that mark.

But yeah 77-79 was a incredible period for bombs and cold too. Thankfully i am old enough to remember a few of them back east which had it's share of them.

[IWXwx]

It was the unexpected ferocity of those storms that really left an impression on me.. Back then, we didn't see these storms coming 5 days out.. we didn't have days of overexcited media overhyping a storm. We didn't have 24 hour TV coverage following every flake as it started to fall. No.. back then, it was go to school or work, look out the window.. and wham.. wow, where did that storm come from?!! I sometimes miss that sense of unexpectedness or surprise that weather used to bring. I know, I know.. progress

The '77 blizzard and the '78 storm were the first instances of 24 hr. coverage. I remember staying up all night watching the Indianapolis TV stations broadcast storm reports. During both storms, they finally quit giving closing lists and just said everything was closed. They then started giving emergency numbers, for medical, food, or heat emergencies. Hordes of snowmobiles were delivering food and medical care to people in outlying areas as well as taking nurses and doctors to work in hospitals and doing house calls.

http://www.dispatch....A1_J495SVR.html

another good article about it in the columbus dispatch. I remember hearing that a specie of bird was eradicated from Ohio by the blizzard....this article says there were a few species almost eradicated. Simply amazing.

also, interestingly, according to this story there was only 'hours' of advanced warning.

The Midwest rabbit population was all but wiped out after '77/'78. It wasn't until about 2000 until the population got back to normal. The quail population was decimated to the point that it never has returned to levels seen before those two years. In fact, for a few years, no one could find a quail in this region.

[IWXwx]

I guess it's time for my third annual "Posting of the '78 Blizzard Pics".

I cut these out of the Marion, IN paper, where I lived at the time.

EDIT: If you can read it, check out the article next to the last pic.

[buckeye]

I would kill to go back in time to relive the winter of '77-78. Hell, we outsnowed it in 2004-05, 2007-08, and 2008-09, but the blizzard, snowpack, not to mention tales and lore, has been unmatched since. Even the winter of 1981-82, with over a foot more snowfall and even deeper snowcover, plays second fiddle to 1977-78. Man, what I wouldnt give to have been around then (id even have to take a Saturday Night Fever-esque spin on the disco floor too lol).

All I have picture-wise is this polaroid my mom snapped and she wrote "beginning of blizzard, 1-26-78".

isn't that the truth. It wasn't until years later that I was reading an article about the blizzard and it said that cmh had picked up 6 or 7" of snow. I thought it was a misprint. Truth was, the amount of snow didn't mean squat. It was all about the wind, the sudden drop in temps and the flashfreeze. When snow comes in on 60mph winds and a 30 degree temp drop, 6" might as well be 3'. The winners in pure snowdepth were places in IN and MI, yet most of the deaths and destruction occurred across OH.

In March '08 when we got our 22" snowstorm (almost 3 times as much as the blizzard), there was virtually no disruption beyond 24 hours. If it wasn't for the fact that it was a record snowfall here, it would be a very forgettable event.

by the way....i think it's cool your mom was a wxweenie

[oldlogin]

isn't that the truth. It wasn't until years later that I was reading an article about the blizzard and it said that cmh had picked up 6 or 7" of snow. I thought it was a misprint. Truth was, the amount of snow didn't mean squat. It was all about the wind, the sudden drop in temps and the flashfreeze. When snow comes in on 60mph winds and a 30 degree temp drop, 6" might as well be 3'. The winners in pure snowdepth were places in IN and MI, yet most of the deaths and destruction occurred across OH.

In March '08 when we got our 22" snowstorm (almost 3 times as much as the blizzard), there was virtually no disruption beyond 24 hours. If it wasn't for the fact that it was a record snowfall here, it would be a very forgettable event.

by the way....i think it's cool your mom was a wxweenie

If I remember correctly ( Yes I was alive and in college at Wright State) there was already a good snowpack on the ground when the Bomb arrived.. That , and the snowfall with the storm combined with the wind sealed Ohio's fate that night. Here is a link to the Ohio Historical Society's info about the storm....

http://www.ohiohistory.org/etcetera/exhibits/swio/pages/content/1978_blizzard.htm

[weatherzen]

Thanks to all who have posted in this thread. I always enjoy remembering this storm. I was 16 at the time and living in Zanesville. I'll never forget literally watching the rain freeze then turn to snow within moments as it hit my bedroom window. It was truly a once in a lifetime event for me thus far and as others have said, the reason for my interest in winter storms to this day.

[wxman_ind]

I guess it's time for my third annual "Posting of the '78 Blizzard Pics".

I cut these out of the Marion, IN paper, where I lived at the time.

EDIT: If you can read it, check out the article next to the last pic.

Thanks for posting these. I lived there then too.

[buckeye]

If I remember correctly ( Yes I was alive and in college at Wright State) there was already a good snowpack on the ground when the Bomb arrived.. That , and the snowfall with the storm combined with the wind sealed Ohio's fate that night. Here is a link to the Ohio Historical Society's info about the storm....

http://www.ohiohisto...78_blizzard.htm

there might have been a snow pack, however i recall the rainy, foggy day before it hit...and i believe the snowpack had taken a pretty decent hit here in columbus...not sure much was left by the time the blizz hit.

[Tony]

I remember the "79" storm quite well. I lived in Chicago at that time and the late 70's was great for winter as a whole. I remember that for at least a week there that my friends and I were shoveling off apartment roofs so that they would not collapse due to the weight of the snow. Made some pretty good money doing that. Also, which I thought was interesting were that cabs, cars and busses were just left in the roads as they could go nowhere. The cab companies offered money(don't remember how much)to bring the cabs back to the depots from the spots that they were basicly abandoned. As long as the keys were in the cars, you would just try to get them back to their garages which was pretty difficult as the streets were filled with snow and tons of vehicles. Pretty fun time in my life.

Also, the snow's kept piling up so the city started to take the snow and dump them in parks and forest preserves as they had no other way of getting rid of all the piles of snow. Leaving the snow in the streets and the sidewalks was not an option as there was just too much of it. Looking at all of the piles of snow in the parks was quite a site. The late 70's was quite historic for Chicagoland. I don't know if I will ever see a winter like that again. To shut down Chicago would take a monumental snowstorm and I'm not saying it won't happen because I would love to have my kids see a storm like "67, "78, "79 in their lifetime. Who knows, maybe the storm next week or the week after...you never know.

By the way, the only TV weatherman that actually predicted that Blizzard was John Coleman. He told everyone to stay at home as a major storm was coming and everyone basicly laughed at him. He was right on the money and it took many a couple of days to get home from that storm. I believe John Coleman started The Weather Channel.

[kerbs]

I remember the night before the ‘78 blizzard. While at a meeting I would get up to look out the window every 15 minutes and thinking that this was going to bust! Rain, rain, rain. When I got home I noticed that the barometer was lower than ever before, but still nothing but rain. Went to bed still thinking this wasn’t going to be a big deal. Early the next morning I looked out the window and WOW. Heavy snow with 60+MPH winds. We ended up with ~12” but buckeye is right…It wasn’t about the amount of snow, but the wind and drifts.

This was the first case of cabin fever for me. Thursday and Friday was spent in the house! By Saturday AM things started to calm down and a friend came by with chains on his truck to pick me up and go looking bread. All the bigger grocery stores in town were all sold out with their parking lots looking like it was Christmas Eve filled with bumper to bumper trucks stranded from the closed I75.

We finally found some bread at a local bakery…Man-What a storm! I’ve been waiting for an encore ever since January 1978.

[michsnowfreak]

isn't that the truth. It wasn't until years later that I was reading an article about the blizzard and it said that cmh had picked up 6 or 7" of snow. I thought it was a misprint. Truth was, the amount of snow didn't mean squat. It was all about the wind, the sudden drop in temps and the flashfreeze. When snow comes in on 60mph winds and a 30 degree temp drop, 6" might as well be 3'. The winners in pure snowdepth were places in IN and MI, yet most of the deaths and destruction occurred across OH.

In March '08 when we got our 22" snowstorm (almost 3 times as much as the blizzard), there was virtually no disruption beyond 24 hours. If it wasn't for the fact that it was a record snowfall here, it would be a very forgettable event.

by the way....i think it's cool your mom was a wxweenie

Shes a snowlover more than a wxweenie. Her knowledge of the weather is limited to the weather channel, the local news, or more importantly me lol. If I showed her a model she'd probably think it was a kids finger painting. She loves all 4 seasons, and in winter she loves snow. But shes one of those "traditional" snow lovers. She doesnt want snow until Thanksgiving, then after Thanksgiving all she wants is snow snow snow, then once we get to early-March she gets a crazy case of spring fever and wants no more snow. Its funny though, when we get a late March or April snowfall (one time we had a huge snowstorm on her bday, Mar 20th), in the days beforehand she will say "I DONT want any snow til next winter", then the day of the storm Ill say "well", and she will say "well, it IS so pretty"...lol. She actually is also in my boat really, give her snowcover and shes happy. On Christmas she was saying how nice it was to have snow for the whole holiday season, and I said to her, "do you realize weve hardly had any real snow since the Dec 12th storm", and she said "no I didnt even think of it that way".

[michsnowfreak]

If I remember correctly ( Yes I was alive and in college at Wright State) there was already a good snowpack on the ground when the Bomb arrived.. That , and the snowfall with the storm combined with the wind sealed Ohio's fate that night. Here is a link to the Ohio Historical Society's info about the storm....

http://www.ohiohisto...78_blizzard.htm

Oh yes there was a heck of a snowpack in place, at least up here. On the order of 6 to 18" in southern MI pre-blizzard.

[michsnowfreak]

By the way, thanks everyone for sharing your memories and stories for those of us unable to have experience it!

[Chicago WX]

I guess it's time for my third annual "Posting of the '78 Blizzard Pics".

I cut these out of the Marion, IN paper, where I lived at the time.

EDIT: If you can read it, check out the article next to the last pic.

You can see the ferocity of that storm through those photos. Thanks for sharing them.

[Chicago WX]

This site is awesome, if you've never seen it before. http://greatlakes.salsite.com/

Taken from there, a surface loop of the Jan 1978 storm.

[SEMIweather]

I guess it's time for my third annual "Posting of the '78 Blizzard Pics".

I cut these out of the Marion, IN paper, where I lived at the time.

EDIT: If you can read it, check out the article next to the last pic.

That's epic.

[ukrocks]

My Dad remember 1978 all too well. It was Kentucky's greatest winter. Snow was on the ground for 6-8 weeks and LMK recorded 50 inches of snow for the season. Would love to see a winter like that around these parts.

This particular storm was our number one snowfall up until 1994 and 1998 wiped it away.

[Harry]

This site is awesome, if you've never seen it before. http://greatlakes.salsite.com/

Taken from there, a surface loop of the Jan 1978 storm.

Show me that any other day on a model without knowing about Jan 78 and i would be in a fit of rage thinking about a miss to the east.lol

Honestly? Do you think a track that far east would be such a great hit in your backyard if you did not know about this event and it was showing on a model?

[Chicago WX]

Show me that any other day on a model without knowing about Jan 78 and i would be in a fit of rage thinking about a miss to the east.lol

Honestly? Do you think a track that far east would be such a great hit in your backyard if you did not know about this event and it was showing on a model?

No chance. I mean it's obviously an extreme extreme example, but proof you can never count anything out.

[Hoosier]

Show me that any other day on a model without knowing about Jan 78 and i would be in a fit of rage thinking about a miss to the east.lol

Honestly? Do you think a track that far east would be such a great hit in your backyard if you did not know about this event and it was showing on a model?

When it was down in Georgia/eastern Tennessee, it'd normally be time to write it off. But it shot basically due north and just exploded. I think it deepened like 40 mb in 24 hours, well above the minimum threshold for bombogenesis.

That map is a little misleading too...the surface low wasn't quite that far east. It was in the western part of the 964 mb isobar on there.

[Chinook]

This site is awesome, if you've never seen it before. http://greatlakes.salsite.com/

Taken from there, a surface loop of the Jan 1978 storm.

Thanks for referencing my web site.

The weird part was, the warm air mass in the Appalachians got routed backward to Michigan and Wisconsin, but the arctic air went through Missouri and Kentucky, then some of the arctic air had to propagate north, following the storm to Lake Huron. The storm happened and moved to Canada so quickly that majority of the snow (one foot) had to have fallen in 12 hours. I'm not sure that all worked out.