The blizzard of 78....My first of many BIG weather events!!

[Guest]

My next story will be out tonight...........

[isobar]

Wow KOW (hehe), 6" of ice on the ground?! :o I bet you were still chipping away on Memorial Day!

Mary - Check out this link about the '78 blizzard in Ohio. You experienced a once in a lifetime, truly phenomenal weather event. Not just a blizzard, but termed a "severe blizzard" by NWS. Record setting BP in Cleveland of 28.28. 100 mph wind gusts all over the state.

But then the two storms met and did something that even the meteorologists....who had expected a blizzard....did not foresee. The two low pressure centers twisted together....a very rare and dangerous occurrence. Warm air began to flow into Ohio from the north and colder air into the state from the south.

http://www.bceo.org/78blizzardrev.html

[Guest]

That ice was around for a while...............That in itself is unusuall because of the salt air with the ocean being nearby.............It took about 3 week for it all to melt off................Usually snow or ice stays on the ground at most a week in that area..............Next story comming out soon.........

[Guest]

Well tonights story involves something that been happening alot lately but for me it was another first and only so far...................A very very very Close encounter with a TORNADO :o !.....................Its memorial day weekend 1995 and severe weather is taking aim on the MA and this i keep a eye on because the timing of the storms is looking to be during the peak hours.......................Anyways my mother is at my house and is planning to go to my grandparents on this day.................I tell her dont decide to go between 2 and 4 pm because it looks like we may be geting some nasty storms around that time.........................Anyways i continue on and check the latest radars and such on twc and see that they area is placed under a tornado watch at around 1 or so and notice a healthy line of storms developing to the wsw moving ene and from the looks on the radar im thinking yep t will be around that 2 to 3pm time frame that they get to my neck of the woods.........................I let my mother know about the tornado watch and of course i get the usuall yea ok Harry like we are really gonna get a tornado....................So about 1/2 hour or 45 minutes roll by and that annoying buzzing sound comes blasting out of the TV and i go to see what the warning is and its a tornado warning for the sw part of my county which is about a hour away and the radar sure looked bad........................It was spotted by a state trooper which i know meant that this was for real.............................Of course now im looking out my window towards the sw and i could just make out the storm clouds approaching...........................Anyways about another 15 minutes pass by and my mother comes to me and says she is ready to go over to my grandparents.....................I look at the TV and see the storms just about to roll in and then that friggin buzz comes blasting away again and its another Tornado warning for one that was spotted about 15 minutes to my sw moving ne and my eyes turn this time to the window and see the sky getting very dark in the distance and i look at my mother and say that the tornado is for real and if we leave now we may end up in it......................Of course she doesnt believe me and heads for the car........................I of course follow.............So we head up what is rt23 and head for rt24 nd while we are going down 23 the sky keeps getting darker and darker.................Its a sky i have never seen before some of the clouds looked like they were touching the ground they were so low and others very very high up...................Im thinking that friggin tornado might be one of them low hanging clouds and i tell my mother this and she is like ok Harry whatever................We get to the First stop light on 23 and im looking over my left shoulder at another cloud that looks to be touching the ground and moving around and i tell my mother that it has to be it and she continues on till we get to the nixt light which is 24 and we make our turn and start up 24 and get at most a 1/4 mile up the road where its open and there it is :o .............The tornado i tell my mother to pull over and stop the car which she does very quickly after she sees it.........................I was like numb i couldnt believe it and this thing was just about on top of us......................I would assume from not beeing tossed about that it was a F0 or F1 at most................It shook the car like you wouldnt believe it pulled it a little towards the side of the road but that was it.......................We werent actually in it but got side swiped by it in front of us...................Probably the only time that road come to a complete standstill as people stopped thier cars to not go through it and of course had a couple of idiots that actually got out of thier cars to be out in it and take a snap shot...............I guess its expected beeing in a resort area and a area that usualy dont get tornadoes.................I did get out but after it had passed.....................What a awsome sight to watch that tornado as it spun off towards the Bay and then Ocean...............................My mother just sat there speechless for a short time and decided to have me drive the rest of the way....................Either way this is something that i will never forget and hopefully never be as close to again...................Oh and by the way my mother does take the warnings a little more serious since then......................The rest of the summer of 95 ended up beeing one of the hottest ever for my location in which countless new record highs were broken..............And i also saw or FELT the hotest temp i have ever seen that summer which happend to be 105 and the dew point hit 80 on that same day.....................Now as we go from the summer of 95 into the fall its kinda dry but still warm early on untill november hits and the temps start falling like a rock and sometime near Thanksgiving we get our first taste of wintery precip in the form of snow and ice which set off a WINTER TO REMEMBER in my area as well as most of the eastcoast the rest of the winter of 95/96 the little early taste we had just caused more headaches then anything as was the the case with the next one in Dec of 95...................After the last little taste of the wintry precip in Dec of 95 we wouldnt see snow again untill after the new year which bringe me to my next story!...................................................................................................The BLIZZARD OF 96 ( :o Coastal Style :o ).....................................This one you will want to check back in for. ....................

[isobar]

I've never actually seen a tornado up close or from afar, but your story made me feel like I was there. TWC could make a whole season of Storm Stories episodes from you, KOW!

[Guest]

I imagine they probably could isobar..............And i still have about 5 or so more to go............................And of course i will add any new story that happens in the future........ Thanks for the reply Isobar..........

[Guest]

Nearing the Blizzard of 96 story.............Keep your eyes out for it..........And you think thats the main game your in for a suprise with the one following it!!!!!!!!!!Check back in for them ............

[JCT777]

Great stories, KOW!! I remember 2 separate ice storms in early January 1994. Both brought at least 2 inches of ice to the area. The second of them ended as sleet and snow. It was a very rough winter for driving anywhere!

And I can't wait to here your account of the 1996 Blizzard. That is my 2nd favorite snowstorm of all time (1983 Blizzard is my all-time favorite).

[Guest]

Well here is the long awaited story of the Blizzard of 96 and what i dealt with!!!!!!!!!........To begin with this was a pretty well forecasted snowstorm with a few exceptions of course my area beeing one of them.................Really cant fault anyone on this because these types of systems are very hard to predict near or at the coast with the RN/SN/Mix line etc..............This was one of them storms where i felt i would get hammered with tons of snow...................Well the night it started i was out having a few drinks at one of my old favorite hangouts watching twc of course and watching the snow make its way towards my area which at about midnight it did....................Anyways at 1 am its time to go home in DE because thats last call and before i had a chance to leave the bar tender asked me to give someone a ride home..........I figured ok the snow wasnt so bad yet anyways................So im heading up the highway to take this person home and they tell me that i only need to get them to rt1 which at this point i am already halfway there and as i keep driving the snow starts picking up and when i get to rt one the roads are covered and the snow is comming down pretty hard now..........So i drop this person off where they told me to and i head back home in a very heavy snow at this point.................The snow is comming down so hard i can only do about 20mph at most seeing how i can only see about 5 feet in front of my car lights and the road is completly covered............Anyways i get home about a hour later and there is about 3 inches or so of snow on the ground and its still comming down very heavly...............I get in the house and the first thing i do of course is turn on twc................Partly because im wondering whats going on down the coast from me in VA beach and to my dismay they had pretty much changed over to rain which i knew then that i will be getting something other then snow by the next day...............So i take myself to bed and wake up to pinging on my roof which could only mean sleet and when i looked outside surely enough we had a snow sleet combo so i look at twc again and see areas not far to the south of me have gone to a sleet and rain mix.............And the local forecast had changed to know include a coastal flood warning along with a wintry mix of precip to last into the night before changing again back to snow..............Before the change over occured we had about a foot of snow on the ground...........Well by about 4 that afternoon here comes the tide rolling in once again to just about my yard the ditch out front was full and there went my snow.............At this point we had a mix of everything Snow,Sleet and Rain and the wind was really kicking so of course beeing the snow lover i am depression sets in especially when i hear the reports comming out of Philly where they were expecting about two feet of snow from this maybe more.................Well by about midnight everything had changed back to all snow again and had a winter weather advs put back in for my area with about 2 or 3 inches of snow expected by daybreak which when i wake up the next day and look out side the snow is still comming down at a pretty good clip and turn on twc again to see my area was put back in a winter storm warning and by days end we had about 7 or 8 new inches or so of snow on the ground that had drifted in some areas well over a foot................It was a amazing site to see on the radar that day as the storm almost looked like a cane with its feeder bands wrapped all the way around it and had made there way all the way down to the tidewater area of VA giving them about 3 or so inches of snow.................I couldnt believe when they showed Philly and what they had gotten which was 30 inches which was confirmed by my grandfather who lives in south Philly..........He says he dont ever remember seeing snow like that in Philly in his whole life that he has lived there which is all of his life..................Well this is my account of the blizzard of 96 which for me was ok as far as snowstorms go but not the best.............That is still to this day held by the DC Blizzard of 83 but i do have a very very close runner up which is the focus of my next story.......................This next story is about the never ending snowstorm which happend just weeks after the Blizzard of 96 in early Feb of 96 and this storm is probably the one which ended up putting my area over philly and most other areas in the NE that winter with the most snow in a season! :o So trust me this you dont want to miss especially if you are a snow lover like myself................ By the way this next storm ranks as number 2 for my favorites and oddly enough number one for the most snow from one system!................Check back in for it..........

[Guest]

Ok i am bumping this so everyone knows that i have finished the blizzard of 96 story..............

[Colin]

The 96 Blizzard was one to remember for me also... got something like 29" from that monster... but also got 22" from the much to be remembered, "President's Day Storm"

[Guest]

Yea colin 96 was a ok storm for me because i got jipped some from the mixture and the DC blizzard of 83 is my Favorite all time snowstorm because of all the elements it had with it...........But my next story is the SnowKing story for those that just like the snow with out all the extras kinda like this past pres day storm and this next one ranks number 2 in my all time favorites list which you will see why when i am done and its posted..........So make sure you check back in for the next one!

[Colin]

I sure will, KOW!

[therock1811]

I loved that story... I think that I got a good snow once in 96... 14" or something like that...

[isobar]

Hey KOW, speaking of the Blizzard of '96 (yeah iso, only a month late ), here are some images to remind you that winter is only 5 months away.
P.S. No new stories in over a month. Wazzup??

[Superstorm]

The same thing that happened to you in the Blizzard of 96, which was ALL snow 100 miles to your west happened to me in the Presidents Day Storm 2. That was the biggest snowstorm(24 in.) I have ever been in! The Presidents Day Storm 2 looked soooo promising, we were told to expect similar totals to the Blizzard of 96. It snowed all day Saturday, after the changeover. Then I wake up Sunday morning to extremely heavy... SLEET! I don't know how it happened, it didn't show up on radar, and it continued for the rest of the storm. By Monday, it had compacted 7" of snow down to 0.5"! :o Thanks to the clipper, we still managed to finish with 9" (7" solid sleet), certainly not another March 5, 2001, but definitely not 18-24+! The worst part was shovelong the whole driveway with a garden shovel.

[Guest]

Well as you will see with my next story (The Never Ending Snowstorm story!) us ones at the coast got ours a few weeks later after the Blizzard of 96! Yea i still call 83 Blizzard my favorite because off all the elements involved (Thunder, Lightning. Wind) except for any mixing of course...................But this baby gave me the most snow from any system ever and as well blew away most of all the totals from the blizzard of 96 except in the Mountains and as well made up for the let down of the Blizzard a couple of weeks before.......................This btw is my number 2 all time favorite snowstorm!!!!!!....................Just didnt have the wind and other stuff imo needed to call it a true blizzard and of course#1 like DC 83 did.......................This system was more like this past presidents day snowstorm except this one hammered the coast and fewer areas instead of the inland areas and of course had no changeover...........................Started on a Thursday night with a low the tracked up from the SE and left about 18 or so inches by Saturday morning and then left a juicy flow from the gulf which kept the snow going the rest of that saturday and left another 8 or so inches before picking back up again late Saturday night with another low that moved up the SE coast and this one in its own right left another 14+ inches bringing totals to 40 if not higher in some locations in Southern DE when all was said and done........................Places where the snow was untouched by sun or humans it was to my chest almost!!!!!!!!!! Even with all that snow i managed to make my way to work.........Only day i didnt was Sunday because the boss decided to just close up( Tired of shoveling the snow in her driveway i think) lol.......!!!!!! It was one of the more powdery snows i have ever seen at the coast thankfully so because my idiot brother who had barrowed my car and i told him not to park it in the yard and did so anyways.............................When i looked out that Saturday AM and seen the car just about buried under all the snow i wanted to scream but didnt................Cant really get upset when a snowlover like myself sees all that wonderfull snow outside!!!!................I went out and noticed how light the snow was and decided to give it a try and started the car and hit on the accelerater a little bit harder then normal and the car just went.....................Was very amazed to say the least! anyways this storm ended up beeing the most snow i have ever seen from a event and it was the longest lasting event as well......................Had a little bit of wind on Sunday which made for some drifting but like i said in the begining here nothing to qualify it as a Blizzard!!!!!!!!! Temps for most of the event stayed under 25 with the coldest day beeing sunday which we failed to get above 20 that day!..................Part of the reason for this event and what made it more of a coastal event then the cities was the fact we had that low which moved up the coast off shore some and then had a trailing front which stalled just to my south that went down into the Gulf with a good flow comming up at us for those couple of days before another low formed along the front and finally pushed it out to sea!!!!!!..........I do believe the Cities themselves got hammered from the first low which gave most of the 12+ inches as well especially on the east sides of the Cities.....................Pretty much had a good band of snow which sat over a few areas mine included which gave out them few 40+ totals......................Now as you will see with my next story the winter of 96 was yet to be finished with us at the coast............................And incase your wondering the last accumulating snow fell in Mid April which means i have a few more 96 stories to tell!!!!!!!!!!!! Check back in for them and sorry this took so long to get out.........................

[JCT777]

Harry - keep up the great weather stories! Can't wait to see what is next.

[isobar]

So was The Neverending Snowstorm sometime in March? Usually not much winter left by then, but not that year!

I was living in NH during the winter of 95-96, and I remember the first flakes starting in Oct and ending in May, a month longer than normal on both sides. By January, we were getting hit 3X a week! All the plow guys were raking in the dough, but they were ZOMBIES from driving all night! I think they took out our mailbox 3 times that year.

What was funny too was that my mom, step-dad, and grandma all moved up from FL the prior summer. Around mid-January, Mom promptly announced they were moving back. And they sure did. Practically left skid marks!

Your next story is overdue Harry. Gonna have to drop your homework a letter grade. j/k

[Guest]

LOL............Opps Donna.............The never ending snowstorm was in the first week of Feb!:lol:
Thanks for pointing that out.........................But yea winter ended late for alot of us along the eastcoast that year...............As you will see like i pointed out in my last story winter was far from done with my area in 96......................I will be adding my next story in the next couple of days................Check back in for it!