What's been the wildest winter storm you've ever witnessed

[sasquatch]

When I was 13 we had a freezing rain storm in which there were multiple lightning strikes. The next day everything was frozen solid and remained like that for a week.

[Loonman]

1. '78

Massachusetts. People froze to death in their cars, the state shut down for a week.

[lukasahero]

6. '78 in RI

We didn't get snow plows in the neighborhood for two weeks. When they finally came, they were military issue and shook the houses. I was 15 and shoveling snow that was over my head. Good times. ;)

[m_welby]

73. '78 in RI was the worst

No electricity for days, all the stores ran out of beer(and bread and milk), it took two days for 4 of us to shovel the driveway and the snow was still there in june.

I remember walking up 95 afterwards, only one lane free and the only cars on it were either buried or national guard trucks. The guard kept telling us not to walk in the plowed lane so we trudged through 6 foot drifts of snow up the highway in the unplowed lanes of 95.

It was amazing.

To this day every time it snows there a run on bread and milk at the stores.

[madrchsod]

39. northern illinois 67and 75-9

67-shit load of snow the drifts in some places didn`t melt till late may.the only people out on the streets in chicago were the junkies and narc`s. 1975 was the year of the "snirt"- winds that stripped the frozen dirt into the snow to produce "snirt".. 76-77 the year of sub freezing temps and howling winds for over 2 months. wind chill at my farm was around 75 below zero and coldest recorded temp in this area...next year 85 inches of snow in a 30 mile radius of my farm..moved into town the next year...

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

43. 1967 was a blast. I was a freshman in high school and we were closed

for five days. My friends and I spent a lot time at the tobaggan slide at Dan Ryan Woods at 83rd & Western. However, my parents didn't think it was that great. My mother's brand new car was left sitting in the parking lot of the CPS she was a clerk at for two weeks before my Dad could get it back home.

I don't remember the winter of 1975 being that particularly bad. However, 1976-1977, 1977-1978 were pretty bad as far as the cold temperatures went, but the absolute worst was 1978-1979.

If I remember correctly we got a total of 89 inches of snow and I remember getting up for work in the morning, listening to the radio and hearing the DJ, it could have been Bob Sirott, saying "well the wind chill factor this morning is only -35 degrees instead of -50 or
-60". I remember too that a lot of people went out and bought either front-wheel drive cars or four-wheel drive cars after 1979.

I also remember my father complaining about how badly the City reacted. None of the major arterial streets were plowed curb to curb for weeks and forgot the side streets. They were absolutely treacherous. He was a Democratic precinct captain and I think even he voted for Jane Bryne against Mike Bilandic in the mayoral primary in February, 1979. I know I did.

[barb162]

58. I'd say 67 and then 78-81

80-81 was when there was 84" of snow that winter as I recall. It was terrible. Also in 2000 as I recall the recorded low one day was -32. I didn't believe the house thermometer was right until they announced it on the radio that in my county at the time it was that low.

[radfringe]

69. yep '78

3 solid days of non-stop snow.

my brother had borrowed my car and smashed it, so it was in the repair shop. In order for me to get to work, I stayed with my parents. I worked graveyard shift, borrowed their car so they still had a car for the day.

ennywhoo--- was working at Northampton State Hospital 11pm-7am, storm started "officially" around 3-4am, I got off work at 7am and made it back to my folks house. HOWEVER, their road has a steep grade and it's privately maintained/shared by 10 other homes on the street. not plowed, had to park at the bottom of the hill and walk it - my folks lived at the top of the hill

we didn't leave the house for 3 days -- except for the 2-3 times a day that my dad insisted on us walking down the hill, digging out the car and trying to drive it up the hill.... and the road still wasn't plowed...

[seemunkee]

2. White out while ski touring in the Adirondaks

We put up some snow blocks in one of the shelters in the high peaks and sat around a fire all day. Ventured out to get more wood and take bathroom breaks.

[BikeWriter]

3. Alaska, winter of '68. How cold was it? I'll tell you...

A window blew open in the NCO Club. The booze began freezing and shoved up the bottle tops. We had frozen boozicles the next morning.

[Blue_In_AK]

36. Sounds like Fairbanks weather.

[BikeWriter]

54. Sparrevohn Air Force Station. 160 mi. west of Anchorage.

http://www.alsap.org/Sparrevohn/Sparrevohn.htm

[Blue_In_AK]

64. Wow, that's a new one on me, and I've been here 30 years...

Just when I think I know where every place is here....

[BikeWriter]

65. It's only a weather station now. There were about 150 of us then.

It was a DEW line radar station.

[Blue_In_AK]

67. Was it related to White Alice?

When my dad first came up here in 1969, that's what he was working on.

[BikeWriter]

68. Yep, that was the name of one of the programs.

[XemaSab]

4. I'm a Californian

I'm not really sure what you're talking about.

:D

[MN ChimpH8R]

5. The Halloween blizzard of 1991

Ran for 2 1/2 days and left 36" of snow in the Twin Cities. The streets looked like something out of a Stephen King post-apocalypse novel - no cars, no people, just snow and ghostly yellow streetlights. Best thing to do was get to the grocery store and liquor store early, then stay in and drink.

[yellowdogintexas]

30. I think that was the year we had temps down to 15 here in north Texas

We went to an outdoor play for Halloween and too 3 sleeping bags, hats, sweats, heavy coats, everything.It was about 19 degrees that night, and we were the only ones not freezing to death.

No sleet or snow, just damn cold!

The play was "Bride of Frankenstein" and the actors did not need makeup to get that stylish blue skin tone so prized by laboratory created monsters. Needless to say the intermission was LOONNNG and mass quantities of hot chocolate were consumed by all.

[Left Is Write]

7. The aforementioned Minnesota Halloween Blizzard.

That was a Thursday. We were snowed in all weekend. I worked for the same company as my father, and they had never closed for weather ever before - but they closed that Friday.

My dad called me at work on Thursday afternoon and told me not to go to school that night (I took classes M-Th nights). I thought he was overreacting. There was barely a cloud in the sky. Still, I agreed. After work I went to my parents' house to pick up my daughter, and it was snowing lightly. I took my daughter trick-or-treating around the neighborhood and decided just to stay there.

The next day, we had over three feet of snow.

[Wapsie B]

48. Iowa got hit with that same storm.

Not the three feet of snow part. In north Iowa it was about a foot I believe. The worst part was the ice. I hadn't seen an ice storm that bad. Power lines were downed all over and some were without juice for quite some time.

[Mizmoon]

8. Buffalo 1996

November 15 it snowed five feet in one day. I'd never seen my car so buried in snow. It took hours to dig it out. It was so much fun though! I was cut off from the world and all responsibility. As I recall I got quite drunk :)

[skygazer]

16. I remember that storm

I was living in Vermont then and it hit us too. My best friend and I drove to NYC in it - we had a conference to go to and like morans were determined to get to it so we started at 2 in the morning. Vermont was bad, Mass was worse, Connecticut was appalling and New York was snowed in. It took us about 7 hours to get there - it's normally a 4 hour trip, tops.

It was such a fun drive (and I'm not being sarcastic - it really was). The city was beautiful all covered in snow and people were outside, shovelling and throwing snowballs and stuff - we got stuck on some cross street somewhere and 5 guys ran out of a parking garage and pushed us out, then stood there waving as we drove away.

It was one of the best days I ever had.

[baldguy]

57. Me too

I remember I was one of the only people to get into work. It was awesome & frightening to see the entire front of a 40 ft tall building drifted over.

Also Jan 2002 - 8 ft in three days.

In '77, I remember standing in my grandparents' driveway with the snow piled up on either side 15-20 ft. They lived on the corner of an intersection, so the plows kept pushing it up & away from the road.

[mainegreen]

9. January Ice Storm of '98

I was out driving in rural Maine in that crap. Never saw another person. It was like I was the last man on earth. Even creepier was once I reached my friends house out in the woods. All you could hear was exploding trees all around you. You'd wait through 10 seconds of total silence, and then *CRACK*-*BOOM* of some tree out in the woods shattering under the ice. Crazy shit.

[Err]

10. 1991

During the Halloween Blizzard of 1991. It was a strange few days there.

[graywarrior]

11. '78 blizzard.

I barely made it out of Central Square in Cambridge to Haymarket where I got the last bus to Lynn. Took me 1/2 hour to walk one block to my house once I got off the bus. Snow up to the second floor, heard about people drowning while napping on their sofa in Nahant, Winthrop got slammed really bad.

What a freak show. Four days of hurricane like winds and snow. Thought it would never end.

[matcom]

12. 1978 hands down

[johnnie]

13. Cleveland 78

No electricity for 2 days. My buddy was cruising his snowmobile around the streets. I forget how many people died, but it was a hell of a storm. How big was that sucker? It was almost the whole eastern part of the states...right?

[enigmatic]

47. I'll never forget that one

The temp went from 47F to 10F in a couple of hours, then the snow fell and fell. The cars stalled in the street because of the snow, and being off school....

[XNASA]

14. Chicago '67 or '79

Chicago 1967 - I remember the snow drifts were so high that we could climb atop our garage without a ladder.

[City Lights]

18. Great pic!

We have a similar one of my younger sister (DUer borlis), who was 1-1/2 at the time, and the snow piles from shoveling are over her head. The ones you mentioned are the worst I remember as well. We had a factory behind us and we were able to climb onto its roof and sled down the drift the earth movers (too much snow for regular plows) made plowing. I also remember an ice storm that was so bad all the kids were able to ice skate in the street.

[LSK]

66. Chicago 79

I remember building tunnels in our backyard.

[sasquatch]

15. Wow, there seems to be a consensus about the blizzard of 1978

:wow:

[WeRQ4U]

17. 1997 - Freshman Year at Univeristy of North Dakota

That winter we had at LEAST eight blizzards, the worst being "Hannah" that dumped 20 inches of snow, covered the city in a thick sheet of ice killing power to thouands for days, and added 60mph winds to the already freezing temperatures. That winter the city received 100 inches of snow. Then, when it melted, the Red River flooded, overran it's banks and inundated the entire town. I helped sandbag for two days before the National Guard locked it down, evacuated the city, and called off the rest of the school year. Then downtown started on fire and it burned through at least three historic buildings. The fire department couldn't reach the area, and there was no water pressure anyway. I sat on my couch, from the comfort of home, and cried my eyes out. It was PAINFUL. That was 8 years ago, and they're still rebuilding today.

[fudge stripe cookays]

21. I found a book about that at our used book store here the other day....

I am SO sorry! I may have heard one or two small things about it on the radio at the time, but until I saw the photos and all the other info about it, I had no idea.

This ranked right up there with the floods in 93, and I don't think it got half as much coverage.

I have cousins in Benson County. Been feeling a lot closer ot North Dakota in my heart lately.

My best to you!
fsc

[WeRQ4U]

42. Some of those books did a really good job capturing what it was like.

You can see the pain people felt. You can see the hopelessness. But you can also see the "stick-togetherness" and the pride those people felt about rebuilding their community. I'll certainly never forget what it was like to literally WATCH the river take people's homes and how shitty I felt leaving the sandbag lines, getting in my car and going home when the NG evacuated the city. You got so caught up in trying to save everything that when you were told that it was no longer worth trying, it was like getting the air knocked out of you.

[fudge stripe cookays]

19. Two stand out for me.

Now remember, we Texans don't have real winters like the rest of you guys. And I do NOT drive in this stuff unless I'm forced to. If we move up north, I'm having reprehensor take me out to a parking lot and let me pull some 180s to get me used to it.

January 1985: Snowed and snowed and snowed! I had already gone from San Antonio up to Denton to register for classes, but my roommates weren't going to be up for a awhile week, and I didn't feel like spending it alone with nothing to do until classes started. So I came home for the week.

Wouldn't you know-- this "blizzard" (for us) came in, and socked in most of the state. Several inches of snow, even in San Antonio. I ended up having to FLY back to Denton, since classes were starting, and the roads were still not passable.

February 1989: I traveled from Austin to Denton to visit my old roommates, who were by then living in an apartment off campus. I drove up on a Friday evening- the weather was gorgeous and balmy, and when we woke up Saturday morning, it was snowing. It continued to snow, and I had to call into work and tell them I was stuck, and couldn't get home until Tuesday, when things started melting.

[eyepaddle]

20. Here's a picture

I'm standing about ten feet in fron of a bright red building--just to give you some idea as to the visibility.

[smirkymonkey]

63. I love blizzards like that!

I don't know why, but I find them exhilarating - same thing with high winds and electrical storms. If I lived in the Midwest I would probably be a tornado chaser.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

22. It wuz either '81 or '82

I can't remember precisely 'cause I was all alone in the top half of a farm house during a 3 day whiteout storm, and I stayed drunk on Boone's Farm the entire time. When it was over and I managed to sober up, I discovered my car was completely buried, and they had to plow the road open with a bulldozer 'cause the road plow trucks couldn't handle it. When I finally got my car unburied, I discovered the entire engine compartment was a block of snow and ice. It took two days to clean it out and get it started. (Love those horizontal snowstorms).

The most astounding part was I never lost electric power once.

This was in rural Ohio (yet another in a long list or reasons I loathe that state).

[Canadian Socialist]

23. Well, living where I do, it's hard to narrow it down to just one

But, in chronological order:
1965: We were in New Brunswick; my mum was about 5 months pregnant with my youngest brother. My dad was away on maneouvers. Anyway, about 4 feet of snow (wet snow!) fell in about 2 hours. My mum had left us home alone (relax, we were old enough) to go to a friends house to play bridge. She was only about 2 blocks away. Anyway, the doors became completely covered in snow, and the locks froze. My mum had to roll down the hill behind our house and then work her way to the door. It took we three kids pushing and her pulling to get the door open. We were snowed in for 3 days. BTW this was on an army base.
1976(?): Winnipeg. I was working at this bar part time while at university. Anyway, the snow started in the evening. And developed into a white out. My grandparents lived across the street (Portage Avenue) from the bar. When the manager said shut it down, and then said everyone go to the motel (attached) for the night, I decided to go across and spend the night with the GPs. Bad mistake. I got into the parking lot and promptly got lost. I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. I eventually got my bearings and made my way to the GPs, but it took me over an hour. I'm very lucky I didn't freeze to death. This is a walk that normally would have taken 5 minutes. I shudder at my youthful optimism.

[Maestro]

24. I was in Glenview, Illinois

during the Blizzard of '79. As a boy who had never lived where it snowed very much that was a shock!

[CatholicEdHead]

25. Early April 1997 in Grand Forks, North Dakota

the last of many blizzards through the entire year. A good foot and half of snow after freezing rain freezing everything up again. It was the last blizzard before the flood.

That year featured many inches of snow, with drifts two stories high at the edges of towns and interstate overpasses blown shut by the winds with snow to the bottom of the bridge. No sooner than you dug out of a foot of snow, your car was blown in again. My trunk faced the NW all winter long.

[WeRQ4U]

41. I hear ya,

See post #17. I was there. It was rough. I was a freshman and I still remember thinking to myself, "I heard that winters were rough here, but if it's gonna' be like THIS every year, It's gonna be a long education."

[CatholicEdHead]

56. I see that, I was a sophomore at UND at the time after a

transfer. Even being a native Minnesotan it was an eye opener of a winter.

[Nikia]

26. The one I was too young to remember in 1978

I lived in rural Ohio with my parents. The storm brought high winds, heavy snow, and extremely cold temperatures. I was a small baby and the power went out at my parent's house. We did not have any alternate source of heat. My parents, fearing that I would freeze to death in the heatless house, walked across the street with me where they maintained power. Unfortunately, it was snowing heavily, pretty much white out. They got temporary lost walking across the street, but managed to reach the house 20 minutes later. Luckily, neither myself nor my parents froze to death and reached the neighbors who took us in until power was restored on our side of the street.

[DS1]

27. Today

x(

[havocmom]

28. 1980 in Montana. BIG flakes, no wind, HEAVY snowfall and...

lightening! So much snow and such heavy, low clouds, we could not hear thunder. Lots of big, diffused lightening bolts thought. We stayed out in it almost all night, quietly sweeping the walks of elderly neighbors before we turned in after abour 4AM.

It was magic. Even the dog knew it was special. It really was a silent night and a SERIOUSLY white Christmas!

[yellowdogintexas]

29. The Thanksgiving Ice Storm of 1992 (I think that was the year)

It may have been 1993...anyway I was getting my food ready to take to my in-law's house when I heard the pitter patter of ice pellets, looked out and there was already an inch of the stuff on the ground. I ran out, stuck my cardboard sun screen on the outside of the windshield to stop the glazing, finished up my food and loaded up the car. I only had 2 1/2 miles to drive, there was no traffic, and there were no hills. I also drove a srick shift which helped a lot.

But it took me 30 minutes to drive 2 1/2 miles. When it finally stopped, there was at leasat 4 inches of ice/sleet/pellets/snow on the ground.

You need to know this was in Fort Worth Texas, where quite often the preferred attire for Thanksgiving day is shorts and a t shirt....

AND THE COWBOY GAME WAS PLAYED IN THE FOUR INCHES OF ICE!!!!!It was hysterically funny, watching them slip and slike around in that stuff. Not unusualy for say Green Bay, downright wierd for Dallas.

[distantearlywarning]

31. 1992-1993 Winter, Freshman year of college in Durango, Colorado

Started snowing around Halloween and didn't quit until late January. I remember walking to class and the drifts everywhere across campus were higher than my head and they had to cut little tunnels through them so the students could go places.

The day before classes were supposed to start, the weight of approximately 7 feet of wet, heavy snow collapsed the roofs of several campus buildings, so Spring Semester was delayed by 1 week. That week was actually one of the neatest times of my life - it was like living in a snowy fairyland, and nobody had to work or go to class or anything. My friends and I just all played outside in the falling snow and then played D & D every night until 3 am for a week straight. We'd walk back to our dorms in the early morning every night through the snow tunnels, crisp new snow crunching under our feet, and light snow falling overhead, and all the lights shining through it. When there was a break in the snow, the mountains looked amazing. It was a timeless, amazing week. I'll never forget it.

I've never seen that much snow since then, and probably never will again unless I move to Alaska or somewhere like that. It was just one of those weird weather years and I was lucky enough to be there when it happened.

[vixengrl]

32. Winter '92-93 in SE PA we had a couple days of freezing rain.

It was brutal, but oddly beautiful, in the way the bare trees were turned into these fragile ice sculptures that would look so hauntingly pretty-- and then fall down and like, wipe out powerlines. I recall being at a friend's house, and when he went to take me home, the rain froze over the doors of his car. We worked one door open (it was a really old car, and had bench seats) got in, and then, to clear the side windows, rolled'em down and *pushed*. Thud. Like a whole pane of glass dropping off. And the trip home, a few exits up I-95, took forever. Had me just wishing it was nice soft, less-threatening snow.

[freethought]

33. Massachusetts-Blizzard of 1978

I was eleven years old then. Snow was up to my underarms. Can't say how tall I was then. It took days just to dig out. But if you were eleven and like the snow it was practically paradise. A number of people did die in the storm. I have not witnessed its equal. Sure a few that were big and dumped alot of snow on the ground. But none have been as big as 1978. It kind of became a badge of honor in Massachusetts to say you were in the blizzard.

[spindrifter]

34. Dec., 1967--Az & NM

Got a ride with two other students to N.M. from Washington State. We took the "southern route." It started snowing in Az. We somehow made it to Magdalena, N.M. after getting released by a snowplow. Couldn't get any farther that day. No one really had clothes for snow except the guy that owned the car. The next day we made it to Santa Fe. The relatives were in a tizzy. Another friend took a more northerly route and had to abandon his car around Flagstaff.

[Blue_In_AK]

35. The "Great Appalachian storm of 1950"

http://wvua7weather.blogspot.com/2005/11/1950-thanksgiving-day-storm.html

I was living in southern Ohio at the time, near Wilmington, but on a farm. I was only four, but I remember that we were going to my grandparents' house which was probably less than five miles away, and the storm hit so fast and so hard that we were immediately stranded on the road, unable to move. When we left the house, we hadn't thought we were going to be traveling very long, so we kids only had on light jackets. My dad had to leave us in the car while he walked out for help. I don't remember who came for us or how we got unstuck, but I remember just being terribly, terribly cold and afraid.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

45. I would've been terrified as an adult!

I'm glad you got out ok!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

37. Some time in the early 1980s (1983 maybe?)

there was a day when we got three feet of snow AND the temperature went way below zero in Minneapolis. Then we got some more snow the next day.

I didn't leave the house for two days.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

38. Madison, Wisconsin the blizzard of February, 1959

My family stayed three years in Madison and I remember shoveling snow most of the winter during that time, usually in piles twice the height of my head. I used to listen to the early morning radio broadcasts to see if they would close my elementary school. Mine was one of the schools that never seemed to close, no matter how much it had snowed overnight.

But in early February, 1959 I think an all-time record low temperature was set. I tried going to school that morning but I could barely advance against the wind and snow and I couldn't see where I was going, especially because the extreme cold had frozen up my eyes. Traffic was non-existent. I had to head back home and I later heard that out of about 32 pupils in my class, fewer than 10 showed up. I remember my mother telling me that with the 'lake effect' the temperature reached nearly 40 below zero.

[alfredo]

40. Ice storm 1978 Lexington Ky. I was living in an old neighborhood

with a lot of old Oak trees. The town was silent except for the tree limbs snapping and hitting the ground. It was incredible. We stood on a covered porch and watched the trees shedding branches.

One branch hit our electric line, caused a short between it and the water line. The water line broke, flooding the basement putting out the furnace.

For a day or so nobody could leave their homes on our street without putting themselves at risk.

[charlie and algernon]

44. blizzard of 94

me and my fellow cub scouts were caught in a camp. luckily we were in cabins, so it wasn't too bad, though me and another, made the mistake of trying to sled in the middle of it. lol needless to say, we didn't last long before retreating back to the cabin.

the drive home was fun two days later, trying to figure out how we could get home being that entrance ramps to the highways were still blocked by snow drifts.

[k_jerome]

46. Redhorn Pass, Caradhras

ended up taking the tunnel instead.

[Whoa_Nelly]

49. !989 Sparks, Nevada Temps hit -17 F and then some

Anywhere there were cracks around the doors and windows, there was ice on the inside walls.
But it was the storm that came in a couple of days later that was intense.

My son, age 10 sat the time, had run outside before school in the morning to play with friends in the snow that was starting. He came back in about 20 minutes later and told me there was not going to be school that day. The snow was already up to his thighs!

Because we needed supplies, and the roads were already snowed with a thick ice undercoat, my then BF and I walked about a mile to the nearest grocery to get some basics...and beer and wine, of course... I wore two long coats over a parka, boots, leg warmers, gloves and gloves....it was wild, windy, and snowing heavily.
Took an hour and a half total, with only about 15 minutes of that in the store.

The cities of Reno and Sparks were locked in for five days...all roads were closed, no interstate trucks in or out, lost elec. a few times, but luckily my house had a woodstove...lifesaver! That, and my heated waterbed!

After three days of being snowed in, I decided I had to go up to the 7-11, normally a one minute drive. But, since I couldn't drive, I got out my X-Country skis and made the trip. A lot of people were out in their yards and driveways, were pointing and laughing at me, but within a day, started seeing LOTS of people on their skis...

It was a huge storm, but it was some fun party time :)

[SoCalDem]

50. March 1970..Michigan City, Indiana

We moved there 2 days after we got married..arrived March 5th..a few days later we had a horrendous ice storm.. No power at all for almost a week where we lived. We had an electric pump on our well, and and electric starter for our gas furnace..and an electric stove..

I had to bundle up the dog and go to work with my husband.. I sat in the conference room and watched the snow fall on lake michigan for 3 days.. It was about 40 degrees in our house at night..Thank goodness for lots of blankets..

We knew no one, and my husband was too new at his job to take anyone up on their offer to stay with them..

[TheWraith]

51. Either the ice storm of 1998, or freaky winter of 2001.

I think that it was 1998--my memory is hazy at the moment--but we had a huge ice storm. I live to the east of Buffalo, NY (City Motto: Please Don't Mock Our Natural Disasters), so we get some heavy snow every so often, but not usually a lot of ice. This was a LOT of ice. It didn't take out any whole trees at my house, but it did a huge amount of limb damage there and elsewhere. Power was out for something like 60 or 70 hours, it was so bad. At first, you could sit there and hear the limbs creaking and clattering. Then they started to come crashing down every few minutes. In the end, there was barely a space in the yard that didn't have branches on it--not just a few branches, but wood stacked three or four feet high, that you had to detour around and find the low spots to cross. It took weeks to clean up.

2001 was even more weird. It had yet to even frost for the first time. The weather was great, sunny and in the upper 60s or low 70s. I was outside doing something, and I paused for a moment to watch my neighbor on his all-terrain vehicle, pulling his Christmas tree up the road. That was December 17th, 2001. Next week, we received 90% of an entire winter's average snowfall, about four feet in 5 days.

[wickerwoman]

52. I think it was 2001...

We got three feet of snow in one afternoon. I was snowed into Newark airport for two and a half days- we couldn't even get out to the hotels so we were sleeping on the benchs. :-(

[RebelOne]

53. Well, since I have lived in the South most of my life,

the only winter storm that I have ever experienced was the blizzard of 1993 here in Georgia.

[Cats Against Frist]

55. Blizzard of 93 in Tennessee

My friends and I had decided to take a road trip, from Evansville, IN, across Tennessee, to the Smokey Mountains. It started to snow, and they were forecasting a blizzard -- but we didn't listen, and went higher up into the mountains. Then it started to snow A LOT, they said there would be record snowfall, so we high-tailed it North, back into Kentucky, as fast as we could. Drove all afternoon, and night, through terrible snow, finally making it to Louisville, at about 8 a.m., the next morning. It had just started to snow, there, so we just kept going, all the way back to Evansville. I think like 19 (actually, my memory isn't so good, on the wiki entry, it said it snowed 5 feet at the NC/TN border) inches fell, or something. We missed the brunt of it, because we kept driving, but it was high drama.

Here's a link to the storm's info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blizzard_of_1993

[BulletproofLandshark]

59. That happened during my junior year of high school.

Up here in northern VA, we got about 3 feet of snow, and we didn't have school for over a week. :woohoo:

[nytemare]

60. Did the '78 blizzard hit the D.C. area?

When I lived up there we had 4 1/2 feet or so of snow. I was a real young'un, so I can't quite remember the year. After it passed, my father built an igloo in the front yard. I had to make a path for my dog to walk out.


In '93 going into '94 I was stationed in No. Va., and we had a bad freezing rain storm. I remember my car being covered in a layer of ice. When I got in, I rolled down the window to knock the ice out. When I pushed the ice, it was still in the shape of the window on the ground.


Probably the weirdest winter was here in Orlando in '89, Christmas eve, where we actually had a snow flurry. That was something that just doesn't happen often.

[Horus45]

61. Blizzard of 78

I can remember one part when I had to trek out into the storm to feed my geese and I literally could not see anything further that 2 feet away from my face, I got lost in my own back yard. Where we lived in NY the snow was so deep that the snowplows could not get through. We were stranded in our house for 3 days until they got a couple of bucket loaders to come up to our neighborhood to dig us out, we had to go out and show the guys running the bucket loaders where the roads were so that they weren't plowing down peoples fences. The snow was easily 7 feet deep with drifts up to 20 feet.

[kwassa]

62. Getting snowed on in July, with lightning.

Snow qualifies it as winter, right? We were on top of a mountain in Yellowstone, in t-shirts and shorts, mid-80s temperatures. Dark clouds rolled in, with lightning, sudden drop in temperature, big snow flakes coming down, we were totally exposed and RAN down that mountainside, which was mostly loose shale. There was no cover at all. We ended up hiking to hot thermal streams near our campsite and jumping in to get warm, which worked well.

Also got caught in a blizzard driving around Lake Tahoe on June 1st! Didn't last, but it was Memorial Day weekend, dammit!

And in real winter blizzards, '96 in DC, about 30 inches in one day, enough to paralyze us for a week.

[TK421]

70. 1983- we had snow drifts so high, my brother and I dug a tunnel

leading out to the driveway and back through the neighbors front yard (we lived in a row home)

[TallahasseeGrannie]

71. No contest. 1978

Covered the cars in the apartment parking lot. Completely covered the doors with drifts. Couldn't leave the house for three or four days. Moved to Florida that summer, and that snowfall was a big part of the reason..that and no jobs.

[MichiganVote]

72. 77' and 78' in Michigan were very rough, X-Country skiing in the city