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 also remember a massive one around December 6, 2000. Why didn’t it make the list?
You must have been married, I was single during those days (and still am) and remember nothing what with the constant partying...........
Yep, that was their hope.....I live in S.E. Michigan and here in Macomb Twp. I only received about 6 - 8".........Which is a good thing. Unfortunately the wind swirls around and over my roof so I had at least two feet in front of my garage door and part way down the driveway.......
The "forecasters", as usual, were way off on this one again.........
used to get a lot of snow back then. I remember building tunnels and forts inside snow banks from the plows on Jefferson. One was so big, we got ten people(kids) in there sittin around shootin the shit...
then by the time i got out of the service in 85, seemed like we only get half of what we used to!
Yep, it seems like every year the forecasters get more and more hysterical over any weather event-then try to frame it to political advantage.
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