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are you old enough to remember the Blizzard of '78?

4171 Views 29 Replies 22 Participants Last post by  Grizzly Adams
We had a some blizzard conditions last night here in north east Ohio
wind and snow, but no real biggie, as the snow wasn't all that much.
maybe 4 to 6 inches tops

It did make me think of the blizzard of '78.
By far, the worst whether event I've personally experienced.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blizzard_of_1978

i recall drifts over the top of the first floor windows on one side of the house.
I saw 12 to 14ft drifts in some areas.
Whole cars were buried.
My own death trap slam I was driving at the time had a broken window track and wouldn't close completely.
Left about a half inch gap at the top.
I walked out the next day and the inside of my car was buried in snow from the floor to the dash.

a week latter a nor'easter blew into the New England area and hammered them with one of their worst ever


..L.T.A.
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I was old enough, I had kids but was headded accross the big pond for the 3rd time in 78. I was out of San diego though and there was no blizzard there except for the peanut farmer.:)

Jimmy carter was the biggest blizzard to me with a huge number of the service people on food stamps, odd and even gas lines (my licence plate ended with odd so I could only get gas on odd days), and sky high interest rates.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack. That was the biggest blizzard in So Cal at that time though.:)
I would turn 7 in March of '78 so I was actually 6 years old at the time. However I remember my Dad walking up the driveway with snow up to his belt. I remember snow forts that we dug into the mounds at the base of our drive. I remember Ice skating at the base of our drive when all the water run off froze. I remember Dad being called out for National Guard and being gone for several days.

We ain't have snow like that since in my neck of the woods.
I remember the Blizzard of '78.
Man, the CB radios were buzzing!
Wow, the 30th anniv of that is coming up.
It started on my mother's birthday. I grew up on a farm, and our driveaway was about 1700 feet long and was cut (or worn) below the ground's surface like a groove cut in the ground. It also ran down into a little valley and back up again. Anytime there was any drifting snow it would fill in, but that blizzard was the worst. The snow just filled the whole thing in level.

Dad dug it out with a Ford 5000 tractor and loader. The rear blade was useless, and he had to dip it out with the loader. In places, the "snow walls" on each side were so high the loader couldn't reach over to dump it. He had to scoop up some snow, back up until he got to a place to dump it, then go back for another bucket full.

But the ice storm (I don't recall if that was before or after the blizzard) seemed worse, because our electricity was out longer.
Yes indeed, I was driving a delivery route an was stuck in Elkhart IN. for 3 days (seemed like 3 years :wink:)
That was my first winter away from home and I was in FL!

:nuts::dancingbananna::nuts:

'Course there was the New England blizzard in the early '70s and then eight years of blizzards in WY after I joined the USAF that made up for it......:hairpull:
Yes I do. I was living in Omaha at the time. My wife and I were trapped in our apartment for four days!
At 3 i can't say i remember it
Off topic...but as I write this I'm sitting here in Warren,OH...the roads are clear but the lot at this place has about 4 inches of frozen snow....I thought I was never going to get backed up to the dock...kept slipping and sliding, and this is a hard dock to hit in clear weather. I was a lil young in 78 (5) so I dont remember it.
Oh yeah, I remember the blizzard of 78 well. It was Wednesday nite/Thursday morning of January 26, my moms birthday!! I was in college at MSU and I was one of only a handfull of people in the whole Lansing area with a 4X4. They had shut down the Campus, and kids were sliding off the roof of Munn Ice Arena on lunch trays since the drifts were up to the roof. It took quite awhile to get myself out of the parking lot, but once I did, since the city had done a pretty good job of keeping the streets passable to a 4x4, I made a small fortune hauling people around town making booze and beer runs. So needless to say..I got invited to alot of parties and was paid well with spirits in addition to the cash. I did get home on Saturday afternoon. They had finally cut one lane thru the heavy drifts with an end loader. It took me 3 hours even then to go the normal 1 hour trip.

NOW to date ourselves...does anyone remember the blizzard of `67?:biggrin:
I just asked the wife about it and she said she was in the Blizzard of '77? Same blizzard?

All of '76, '77 and '78 I was bustin' my hump in the west coast shipyards, averaging 75 hours a week. Made a lot of money but don't remember much about the weather. Those years went by pretty quickly. :frown:
I just asked the wife about it and she said she was in the Blizzard of '77? Same blizzard?

All of '76, '77 and '78 I was bustin' my hump in the west coast shipyards, averaging 75 hours a week. Made a lot of money but don't remember much about the weather. Those years went by pretty quickly. :frown:
There were some significant storms in 77....but the big one here in the Great Lakes up thru New England was 78.
It hit NY and I was there then I still have pictures of it somewhere.
Off topic...but as I write this I'm sitting here in Warren,OH...the roads are clear but the lot at this place has about 4 inches of frozen snow.....
you were just a stones throw east of me, Runner.
I'm 12 miles west of the I-80, I-76 split.
or 7 miles west as the crow flies from the Warren toll road exit at 80 and rt 5

BTW, if you got off the toll rd at rt 5 and went into Warren, you passed a nice little gun shop called Slugmasters.
Nancy is the Old Girl that owns the place.
Very reasonable prices on guns and gives cash discounts on top of that

We got more wind than snow Sunday.
By 9pm or so, the snow was over, then the winds died down not too long after that.

The ice/snow crunch you encountered likely came more from the last few days.
Snow, then just above freezing temps, then freezing rain and freezing temps


..L.T.A.
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I remember it. I was 10 yrs. old and my brother was 7. We were stuck in the house for 3 solid days before we could finally go outside. We stayed outside as much as we could when we were kids, so we nearly went nuts being stuck in the house for that long.
I was a junior in high school when it hit. I lived in Md and don't honestly remember the one in '78, but there was a big one in Feb '79 that is in the top 5 snows for Md. Tracy
You people make me feel old lol. I was already thru 2 tours in Nam and on the Rock training again lol, in 78.
I just asked the wife about it and she said she was in the Blizzard of '77? Same blizzard?
It was the "winter of" '77/78 Jack.
but the great blizzard was in Jan '78
New England area got smashed a week later in Feb

The winter of '76/77 was one of the coldest I can remember.
weeks and weeks of sub zero temps.
The lowest temp was -27 locally

..l.T.A.
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