Posted on 02/01/2011 11:11:51 PM PST by 6ft2inhighheelshoes
It’s been a long time since Michigan has had a really big snowstorm. Most local folks under the age of 25 have never experienced an authentic blizzard; the kind that drops more than a foot of snow and blows drifts that bury automobiles, mailboxes, and even buildings. Tonight we may be visited by a “beast” of a storm that is roaring across the Midwest, has dumped 21” in Tulsa, and is sucking up moisture over the big lake before clobbering us.
Predictions for mid Michigan range from 10” to 18” over the next 24 hours, with lots and lots of drifting. For those of us growing up in the sixties, it marks a return to winter’s business as usual, and the thought of how I forgot to get the primer button fixed on the snow blower is foremost on my mind. Fortunately, I planned waaaay ahead, and am now in possession of two hulking teenage boys who understand the connection between helping Mom, and using the new PS3.
These guys grew up during a mini Global Warming Period, with mild winters and falling lake levels, long summers, and Al Gore. I’ve been regaling them with stories from the great blizzard of 1967, when the snow paralyzed everything, and we had a week long vacation from school. A full two feet feet fell, and remains the record. However, today’s newspaper states the snowfall during the 1967 blast was 15.4”. That number appears to have been picked from an early report during the blizzard. It’s curious that current researchers chose an understatement of the snow depth. I do wonder why. http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110201/LANSING01/302010012 From the internet version of the Lansing State Journal: Record snowfalls in Lansing 15.4 inches, Jan. 26, 1967 • 15.1 inches, Jan. 26, 1978 • 14.5 inches, Dec. 11, 2000 • 13.9 inches, March 17, 1973 • 12.6 inches, Jan. 22, 2005 • 10.3 inches, Jan. 13, 1979 • 10.2 inches, April 1, 1970 • 9.9 inches, April 2, 1975 • 8.9 inches, Dec. 11, 1970 • 8.8 inches, Jan. 13, 1976
Not to be dramatic, but didn't this kind of data massaging bring on Climategate?
Since weather forecasters are predicting as much as 18”, it seems as if the reporter hopes we achieve a new record tonight. Of course, news sells papers, but this kind of news also sells bad ideas, and I’ve lost count of how many references I’ve heard today of Global Climate Change, and how this “massive storm” is directly related to it.
My husband, who continues to surprise me, announced that he had kept the newspaper clippings from the snowstorm of 1967, and triumphantly retrieved them tonight. I was aware of his collection of the moon landing, and the assassination of JFK, but now I actually appreciate his peculiar obsession.
Of course, in 1967 we weren't yet worried about Global Warming, because it didn't yet exist. The backwards notion of the day was that the world was doomed to repeat a long overdue ice-age; with increasingly vicious snow storms, shorter summers, and much colder weather, which culminated in the winter of 1976-77. In the whole month of January 1977, the thermometer never once topped 0 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now, we know better; the current colder temperatures, heavier snowfall, and general change in the weather from day to day is caused by Global Warming, or rather the more fashionable term, Global Climate Change. Indeed, no matter what happens in the swirling dark tonight, the same people who accuse Rush Limbaugh. Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin of scare-mongering, will hurry to press in the morning with the latest bleak predictions of doom.
I grew up in Traverse City, now living on the other side of the lake in Port Washington, WI.
I was a nine year-old boy in ‘67 and can remember the snow in our back yard being chest deep.
Ten years later, in January ‘78 we had a blast of winter weather that shut down the schools for over a week. The Army Corps of Engineers had to come out to plow the highways. That turned into some of the best skiing I can remember in the Midwest.
By contrast, the winter of ‘79-’80 we had a green Christmas and thunderstorms in January. The skiing was pathetic that year. One local ski area went out of business permanently as a result.
What the lefties call “Global Warming” or “Global Climate Change” is nothing more than “weather” to those of us who live in this region of the country.
Don't volcanoes release tons of CO2?
That must be the driver for record snowfall.
And that was before Algore invented GW.
A really big snowstorm? A long time?
I guess Michigan consists of only Below the Bridge. Another reason for the UP to split.
For the authors ignorant information..Houghton is the 3rd highest city in the nation for total yearly snowfall. If you would include Calumet, Calumet would be the highest-I believe it was 382 inches in 1982. And I wouldnt live in either of those places. Not that the people arent nice and all that, but, there is only so much a person can handle since I lived near Munising where it isnt uncommon to have snow on the ground mid Oct.
190 inches isnt unusual for a yearly snowfall.
That’s a great pic. Did you take it?
It’s not light yet, so I don’t know how bad it is. I know that I cannot open the storm door on the front of the house, despite the fact that my front porch is heated. The wind blowing off the Lake (4 miles away) has plastered the entire front of my house — every window, every door.
I hope the snow plow guy (we call him Saint Bobby) gets here early. My husband has an 8 AM appointment at the hospital.
I didn’t take it, but I believe it’s from upstate PA.
As soon as I saw it though, I knew it was a keeper!
Good luck to you and your hubby getting to his appointment. Be safe!
Yet the media is hyperventilating as if SNOW STORMS during Winter are something new and a major crisis.
In November of ‘73 we had 42 inches of snow just north of Moosehead Lake in Maine by Thanksgiving.
I was stationed in Sault Ste Marie from 76’ to 78’. One of my many duties was doing snow plow duty.
One of my favorite stories is about going to Kinchloe AFB for a Dr. Visit and having the road to the interstate get closed behind me due to the snow.
I just showed up at the gate with the GOV Snowplow and said I’m leaving Y’all have a nice day. They asked me to hold on for a few minutes and withing 15 minutes there was a line of cars behind me waiting for me to plow a path through to the Interstate.
FUN TIMES!
Yeah, we got 15 or more inches and I’m thankful - we didn’t get the several inches of ice over two days that they got a couple of hours east of us.
I think this is your storm: http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/events/childrensblizzard.htm
At least in the northern areas of Nebraska, the storm came out of the clear sky as a strong wind whipping up snow already on the ground. A dark cloud moving on the ground.
LOL It’s true. I heard that the Lansing Liberals were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, buying up groceries and gas like it was the end of the world. The blizzard of 1967 caught us by surprise, and I remember my mother nervously thinking our large family might run out of food in the week it took to clear the roads. BTW, Lansing is the best part of the state weather wise-it hardly ever gets hit by really big storms.
LOL thanks for this pic!
I’ve been through Traverse City as well. That area is lovely!
LOL! Yup! Thats it! Hey! Bet you know how to tell when your coming up behind another vehicle in a blazing snow storm.
We dont even call them storms up here..just a whole lot of nasty cuss words. And they wonder why us yoopers are cranky in the winter?
Thanks 6ft2inhighheelshoes. I’m about to go back out and face it again! Aiiiie!
Ya'll heard of a Glow Plug?
Eyes a gonna invent a Glow Ball Warmer
Cause after last night, my brass monkey went from needing the latter to needing the former...
I had to park about 1/8th of a mile from the house tonight, and noticed just how cold it was getting on the way from there to the house. Then, after it got dark, I walked up to go to the store, and was better bundled up — but it was even colder. Nasty.
I remember the one in 1978. I notice that it is broken up into two different snow days on your list. I wonder why it’s not combined as one event, putting it on top?
I think I died in that one and I’m posting from the hereafter.
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