45 years later: Blizzard of ’78 (46 years now)

Wishtv ^ | 1/24/2023 | Diana and Morse

[left that other site]

LOL...I remember that.

[FrankRizzo890]

I lived in Nashville at the time (considering I was a child), and we were out of school for what felt like a month. We were out so long that we had to go to school on SATURDAY and later in the year that normal to get the required number of days in.

The local hill was EPIC for sledding! Very very few cars could make it up it as it was SOLID ICE from the “melt a little during the day, refreeze at night” cycles. Anyway, when it started to thaw, I remember sticking my hand down in a crack in the ice, and just BARELY being able to touch the road with the tip of my middle finger. (I was almost 12 years old at the time). That’s how thick the ice was on that hill.

[Red Badger]

It was called ‘The Incredible Bulk’................

[Zuriel]

I lived in Mercer county in NW IL for my first 62 years. The number of rural people living in the south central part of that county has dropped a LOT. There was 11 people in a 1 mile radius of the farm my wife and I lived on, when we moved to TN 7 years ago.

But the townships all have road graders w/snowplow attachments. And most of the farmers have big loader tractors to clear out their driveways.

[gleeaikin]

I don’t think 14 people would have died of carbon monoxide poisoning if they were trapped in electric cars. If running a car stalled in deep snow it is important to dig out the tail pipe from time to time. Also, always carry blankets in the winter and water in the summer.

[EVO X]

Ditto farmers that have tractors that can plow huge snow drifts. It still takes time to open things up after a blizzard...

[nwrep]

Good thing your dad could simply open his laptop and continue working from home. :-)

[gleeaikin]

A more recent big storm for the mid Atlantic area was in 2010 when back to back big storms hit, leaving 3 and more feet total in some places. The 10th anniversary link below tells the story:

https://www.wunderground.com/article/safety/winter/news/2020-02-04-february-2010-snowmageddon-snowstorms-washington-dc-baltimore-philly

I remember the people next door built an igloo in their yard which lasted a week. There was so much snow that trucks plowed towering piles 12 feet high in some large intersections. Other memorable storms were the snow the night of JFK’s innaugural balls. I had just moved into the area. It took 5 hours to drive from Bethesda to down town DC, starting mid afternoon. A year or two before I moved in 1967, I looked out my second story window and every car on both sides of the narrow street below was completely covered and invisible. Finally, after a week, a big garbage truck managed to drive down that street. Another big snow, 1922 I think, killed many people when a theater roof collapsed. So this area may not be Buffalo, but it has had some big ones.

My first great snow memory was the “Big Snow of ‘47” which I experienced across the river from NYC in northern NJ in 1947. Dad had to shovel a long walk to the street. The 27 inch high walls along the path were a perfect place to dig out caves for my toddler brother to hide in.

My most recent big snow memory was the Valentine’s Day gift I gave my partner when I dug 60 feet of 2 foot+ snow in front of his house because he had recently broken his leg slipping on ice. I was in my 70s at the time. I am not always feeling sorry about global warming. ;-)

[reed13k]

I was also in Indiana SW small little town of 800. I was 10 at the time.

Distinctly recall my dad opening the back door and seeing a wall of snow piled all the way till a few inches from the top.

Groups of men went door to door the next few days checking on everyone - always partnered up to make sure no one got lost.

After it settled down everyone helped dig out the downtown area and main roads. I was handed a snow shovel as were all the other boys, no questions asked, no complaints given - we knew what needed done.

I think I have clippings from the papers still, but not home to dig them up now. Seem to recall a number of truck drivers pulled over under the interstate overpasses, drifts closed them in and they died from Carbon Monoxide poisoning.

[redangus]

Stuck in an old farmhouse for two days with a frozen septic tank. Had to walk through 6-7-foot drifts and -50 windchills to feed the cows. Only got out because the guy who owned a local gravel pit decided to dig his way home with a huge front loader. Lucky for us he lived three houses down. Bought my first 4x4 after that. 45 years later I’ve never been without at least one in the family fleet. Live in town now with a generator, but I still own blizzard clothes just in case.

[left that other site]

So far this year, it hasn’t been too bad...buit we still have to get through February and March.

[Pelham]

This was the 1966 Blizzard that hit Washington DC. The picture is somewhere in Arlington, and considering how small Arlington County is it can't be far from my old neighborhood.

An inch of snow could cause trouble there and this storm dropped 3 feet all at once. A Washington Post driver had been out in it and simply abandoned his truck on our street and walked home. Everything came to a standstill for about three days.

This was my last snowfall before moving to Southern California. I'm still waiting for it to snow here but so far no such luck.

[P.O.E.]

Had to shovel a mountain of snow to get my car out and drive to work at the factory.
Got there on time.

[gleeaikin]

The street I described in my comment was narrow with 3 story row houses on both sides. I think it was drifts that completely buried the cars parked on each side. Earlier that day I had decided to go for a walk to see what it was like. It was intense, and I had a water bottle and snack with me and 3 layers of clothes and mittens. My husband said I was crazy, but I said I loved snow. When I was 9 or 10 in NJ, my mom would dress me warmly and give me a bag of food and drink and I and my sled would be gone until almost dark enjoying the hills on the golf course.

SoCal? Head for the mountains, I hear they have big snows sometimes.

[gleeaikin]

A lot of places like NYC have complained about not getting any snow for close to 2 years. I wonder if that super explosion of the volcano in the Pacific that blew so much water vapor so high in the sky has had some effect. Perhaps water vaporized so high it has taken this long for it to start coming down again.

[Pelham]

“SoCal? Head for the mountains, I hear they have big snows sometimes.”

During one of the Covid years people got trapped, unprepared, up in the mountains that ring Los Angeles.

Our SoCal locals can barely handle rain. So the concept that a heavy snowfall could trap you in a cabin doesn’t occur to them until it happens. I didn’t hear of any cannibalism but you never know.

I did see snow falling in my OC neighborhood exactly once. I was out in a really cold storm and flakes were drifting down. They melted immediately. But for once it wasn’t hail pretending to be snow.

[left that other site]

That’s entirely possible. The Tonga Vocano was massive.