The Catastrophic Blizzards of Winter 1977-78: An Analysis

foreign this winter so far has been wild a historic arctic front and accompanying blizzard struck the Great Lakes region causing wind chills near 40 below zero the City of Buffalo has been declared a disaster area after receiving 50 inches of snow and 80 mile an hour winds just one month after receiving 80 inches in a separate catastrophic snowstorm any subsequent events to occur this January and February are likely to shatter some record books in fact some of those record books have two years at the very top of their rankings 1977 in 1978. if you happen to live in Ohio Indiana or Western New York you've likely either experienced these winners yourselves or heard countless tales about the cold and snow from your parents but was it really that bad well today amidst an unseasonably warm January we're going to look at how these two winners top the record books the ridiculous meteorology behind them and some of the most incredible stories to emerge from the wreckage first what happens in winter in the United States well let's start with the top of the atmosphere and work our way down the sun is positioned south of the Equator so the northern hemisphere is getting less daylight overall this means that the United States on a hole is much colder but not the same temperature everywhere high up in the atmosphere there is a narrow band of fast winds coming out of the West called The Polar jet stream it forms along the boundary between mild air to the South and freezing cold air to the north it's kind of like a highway for the upper atmosphere and it forms a wave-like pattern as it wraps around the earth these waves are called raspy waves named after a guy and are not stationary they oscillate or move back and forth diving and lifting moving entire air masses with them their existence has to do with the balancing of forces in the atmosphere the laws of physics and thermodynamics a lot of stuff that you probably don't care about but just know that the position of the upper atmospheric superhighway is a huge indicator of the weather that's happening at the surface so in the winter the average pattern looks like this there is a ridge to the west of the Rockies which means there is warmer air on the west coast then to the east the jet stream dive Southward which is called a trough bringing freezing air to the Midwest let's pick a random winter date January 9th 2007. what did the jet stream look like on that day ah a ridge over the west coast and a trough over the Midwest like I said it is the mean state of the atmosphere but as you probably know deviations from the mean occur quite frequently you can have ridges over the Midwest for most of winter resulting in unseasonably warm weather this is an inverted pattern and a good example is January of 2020 one of the warmest januaries on record since 1985. but you can also have an amplified pattern which is a ridge over the west coast and a trough over the Midwest as usual but both are much larger this is what started happening in the fall of 76 so we just learned that these rosby waves oscillate they swing down over the U.S and then lift back up over the Atlantic Ocean which is why weather patterns change from week to week but what if they didn't what if for some reason there was a stable pattern where an unusually deep trough was just able to exist over the Midwest for an entire month you see where I'm going with this blocking patterns are when particularly strong air masses block the normal oscillations that occur in the jet stream this is how long heat waves occur in the midwest a blocking High pushes the jet stream further north for days even weeks at a time but there are other blocking patterns as well that can occur in winter winter of 1976 was interesting though because the flow of the jet stream was in Phase or normal for that time of year there wasn't a weird high pressure system out of place let's take a look at the Pacific Ocean in Winter to the north you have an omnipresent area of low pressure called the Aleutian low because it's always by the Aleutian Islands the area of low pressure creates storm that impact Alaska as well as helps Drive the flow of the jet stream northward on its eastern side this flow is further enhanced by the North Pacific High an area of high pressure to the west of California this high pressure causes the ridge over the west coast and the jet stream flows around the Aleutian low into Canada and down over the Midwest but starting in the fall of 76 the Aleutian low is much stronger than usual and it was quite literally twisting the jet stream giving it a much greater northward component of motion why was it stronger well the answer lies in several factors one of which is abnormally warm sea surface temperatures off the western coast of California Sea surface temperatures greatly impact our weather patterns for example moisture and warmth from the Gulf of Mexico is the reason why we get strong tornado outbreaks in the Midwest and the Deep South The Exchange of moisture between the Sea and the atmosphere fuels storm systems and wouldn't you know it warmer than usual ocean waters were present off the western coast of California with colder than usual will sea surface temperatures about 1 000 miles to the West these warm Waters heated and expanded the column of air above it while the colder Waters cooled and contracted the air above them this created what is known as a pressure gradient and this is where a lot of people often get lost the atmosphere is three-dimensional it's really hard to visualize that when glancing at two-dimensional weather maps but the height of a column of air is proportional to its temperature meaning a pocket of warmer air is inherently taller than a pocket of cold air so the air pressure which decreases as you go up hence why they pressurize the cabins of airplanes is the same at these two points in the atmosphere even though they are at wildly different heights and this is where the pressure gradient Force comes in because the forces that govern our atmosphere work in such a way where they try to balance each other out the direction of the pressure gradient force is from high pressure to low pressure because the anomalously warm and cold Waters in the Pacific created a temperature gradient that was oriented in an East-West fashion this helped reinforce the jet stream's Northerly flow over the Pacific and pushed all Cyclones that would form below to strike Western Alaska instead of the Pacific Northwest giving Alaska one of its warmest Winters on record so as you can probably infer this caused an unusual winter drought in California and Oregon for a state that supplies 25 percent of the nation's food California saw a billion dollars in crop loss in the winter of 1997 unable to properly irrigate Farmland it was common for all Farmers to sell their cattle for pennies on the dollar not having enough hate to feed them water storage in major reservoirs across the state was getting scarily low it remains one of the driest years on record for California in Washington Oregon and Idaho the lack of moisture in the air resulted in very little snow in high elevations this snow at the top of mountains is critical in supplying water to rivers and streams when it melts in the warmer months Mount Hood usually sees about 140 inches of snow it's six thousand feet of elevation and winner but in 1977 it sat at a mere 21 inches so yeah the Amplified Ridge over the Western U.S wreaked havoc on daily life in 1976 and 77. but what goes up must come down in 1500 miles to the east the Great Lakes region was dealing with an entirely different problem above the North and South Poles exists the coldest air on Earth swirling in a counterclockwise area of low pressure this is called the polar vortex and it strengthens in Winter and weakens in the summer the polar vortex doesn't exist in one small circulation it shifts in all directions even splitting into two or three smaller circulations diving southwards over more southerly latitudes in the winter a notable precursor to these cold air outbreaks is something called a sudden stratospheric warming this is when the air over thirty thousand feet above the North Pole suddenly warms tens of degrees Celsius over the course of a few days the warming temperatures can slow the counterclockwise circulation of cold air even causing it to start rotating clockwise the situation is similar to a spinning top when the top is spinning very fast it's relatively stable and doesn't like to move laterally but when it starts to slow down it begins to wobble and eventually Falls over several weeks after the polar vortex weakens the cold air can spill Southward causing well below average temperatures in the mid-latitudes similar to the wobbling top the issue with 1977 is that even without a major sudden stratospheric warming October November and December were well below average for the Eastern United States when the sudden stratospheric warming did occur in late December it was so strong that not only did the stratospheric polar vortex reverse Direction but wins at the surface reverse direction as well North of 60 degrees latitude surface winds were out of the East this allowed an area of high pressure to move over the poles and this blocking High which pushed the split polar vortex southwards towards the Equator was the final piece of the puzzle what happened next shattered the record books December 1976 was brutal for the Midwest and the Great Lakes region multiple Cyclones ahead of Arctic fronts berated the region bringing intense snowfall followed by an Arctic blast that would last for several days most of these Cyclones were Alberta Clippers which are fast-moving Cyclones that originate east of the Canadian Rockies usually in Alberta they then fly to the east over the 49th parallel often within 48 Hours containing less moisture but bringing strong cold fronts through the region the strongest of these Cyclones occurred on December 20th 10 inches of snow fell in the snow belts of the Great Lakes and the temperature plummeted from 60 to 20 degrees in several hours by then the average temperature for the month had dipped into the 20s well below normal and while midwesterners were hoping to see some relief in January as temperatures slowly climbed the exact opposite happened on New Year's Eve another arctic front plunge Southward through the Great Lakes region and the temperature dipped back into the teens unbeknownst to cities like Chicago it would stay below freezing for 41 consecutive days the first week of January 1977 was cold but bearable temperatures were once again hovering around 20 in Ohio and by January 6 95 percent of Lake Erie had frozen over this is pretty remarkable it's rare for Lake Erie to have near complete ice coverage in mid-February let alone right after Christmas this had several consequences one it put a immediate stop to lake effect snow caused directly by Lake Erie moisture from the lake was now trapped beneath the ice and could not eject into the atmosphere to create lake effect snow however snow was now able to accumulate on top of the ice from the near constant flow of Alberta Clippers that were moving through the region this snow was very light and powdery like powdered sugar because the atmosphere was so cold that snowflakes weren't sticking together in clumps this meant that the snow was able to be blown around easier into drifts and this will be important later on January 10th things changed dramatically for the first time that winner a surface low had developed over Western Texas this wasn't like an Alberta Clipper Southern surface lows can ingest a ton of moisture from the Gulf and can dump feet of snow as they travel Northeast and that's exactly what happened over eight inches of snow was dumped along the Ohio River Valley from Eastern Missouri to Western Kentucky and another three to five inches across Northern Ohio conditions were blizzard-like with wind chills near 30 below many local communities had already burned through tons of rock salt and the demand was starting to become an issue schools across the corridor were forced to close the following few days with the hope of opening again once the windshield became tolerable by January 15th after yet another round of snow temperatures finally Rose back into the mid-20s and then crashed almost immediately after in all time historic arctic front with air 25 degrees below zero was pushing its way southeastward across the Midwest Ohio River Valley and eventually the Gulf Coast from January 16th to the 18th low temperature records were shattered the hardest hit city was Cincinnati and the surrounding communities which reached 21 24 and 25 degrees below zero on consecutive nights school was once again canceled for several days due to wind chills 50 below zero leaving school districts parents and children frustrated on January 16th the Ohio River completely froze over allowing people to walk from Cincinnati to Newport Kentucky for the first time since 1958. yeah immediately please all the way up to the shore May everyone take your pictures on the shore please the river remained Frozen for several days and since most oil arrived to the tri-state area by ship the demand for gasoline was higher than the supply some 50 000 tons of rock salt for Southern Ohio was also trapped on the Frozen River on January 17th the historic Upstate theater had caught fire in Evansville Indiana but the fire hydrants were physically Frozen firefighters were finally able to warm them up and upon spraying down what remained of the theater the water froze into massive sheets of ice within a few minutes in Cleveland tow trucks were running six hours behind schedule water main breaks were creating sheets of ice on city streets it's important to note here that all of this ice was unmeltable rock salt is unable to melt ice below negative six degrees Fahrenheit and even at 15 degrees it's 86 percent less effective than at 30 degrees and all the snow that had fallen up to this point the fine powdery flakes was still on the ground temperatures had not yet risen above freezing so this snow was just blowing from snow drifts back onto the roads every time they were cleared gas companies such as Columbia Gas and East Ohio gas company began asking businesses to close in order to save gas for homes ironically enough schools were some of the biggest natural gas consumers at the time warehouses including Ford and General Electric plants as well as several shopping malls were only allowed to use enough gas to keep their pipes from freezing then Governor Road suspended an EPA regulation now allowing the burning of high sulfur coal saving natural gas for residential buildings on January 20th the Leading Edge of the historic cold front had made its way to Cuba and the result was the first and only occurrence of snow in Southeastern Florida in recorded history look at how far south this trough is digging it's ridiculous in the early morning hours Tampa saw an inch of snow while Miami Beach had reached 32 degrees and saw a trace of snow which melted before 10 AM it was also reported that the Bahamas to the east saw a wintry mix that morning it was truly a once in a lifetime event as for the Midwest temperatures gradually started to climb after the 20th reaching the mid-20s by the 22nd and stayed there for a few days but this entire month there was yet another catastrophe silently Brewing remember how Lake Erie had frozen over in early January well that powdery dry snow had accumulated into Mammoth three foot drifts of top ten thousand square feet of ice just to the west of Buffalo New York for the next several days The Ridge of high pressure over the Western U.S was building further and further to the north and on January 25th the area of high pressure was situated over Graham Island to the west of British Columbia this was officially the furthest North that the ridge would build all year and the resulting vorticity or the spin in the atmosphere caused by the twisting of the jet stream caused a constant barrage of Alberta Clippers to form and eject southeastward to the Great Lakes dropping inches of snow know causing localized power outages then sharply turning to the north over Quebec that was a run-on sentence I bet you thought it would never end well you're like a midwesterner on January 25th thinking that the cold and snow would never end and unfortunately for them that was the day that the strongest Alberta Clipper developed within 48 Hours it plunged down over the Great Lakes bringing a blistering arctic front with it containing 40 mile an hour winds and nearly a foot of snow the low passed over Lake Superior causing Ohio and Western New York to receive the brunt of the cold air the temperature dropped from 20 to zero in two hours as the wind blew across Lake Erie and funneled into the City of Buffalo the 10 000 square feet of light powdery snow that sat atop Lake Erie was launched into Western New York on January 28th and the result was catastrophic now the Buffalo National Weather Service knew that this was going to be bad but they hadn't used the term blizzard in any of their warnings they knew that doing so would result in the closure of the majority of business businesses and schools essentially an entire city shutdown and in the 10 a.m hour they decided to issue the blizzard warning the only problem was the arctic front hit Buffalo just after 11. several accounts told of a white cloud extending from the ground to the sky that was the first wave of snow picked up off of Lake Erie carried East by the Leading Edge of the arctic front the blinding snow made it impossible to see across the street and while many residents were still driving home after the warning was issued they were faced with a choice sitting their cars stranded or tried to get home on foot many who chose to sit in their cars were buried within 15-foot snow drifts by the afternoon and many who walked home experienced frostbite in the 50 below wind chill because the snowflakes were so small the high winds were able to compact the snow into dense heavy sheets so once a vehicle was buried it was stuck there for a long time and by the afternoon many who chose to stay at work realized there was no way of getting home two thousand children were stranded across Western New York at various rural schools and thirteen thousand people were stranded in various Office Buildings in downtown Buffalo by evening the winds were now gusting to 70 miles an hour and residents whose Windows weren't physically covered by snow drifts could not see across the street visibility was near zero the police were essentially immobilized so they asked ham radio operators to broadcast a request to use citizen snowmobiles and many citizens came through this allowed law enforcement and Emergency Management to drive Atop The 30-foot snowdrifts locate the 10 000 stranded Vehicles including school buses and perform rescue operations for those in need of Emergency Care the drifts were so high that snowmobilers had to avoid crashing into power lines and chimneys which did happen the wind ebbed and flowed over the next 48 hours ranging from whiteout conditions to peaks of sunshine again the radar at the Buffalo weather office showed nothing because this was all snow that had already fallen travel by any mode of transport rotation was banned in many Western New York communities the National Guard came in and cleared a few major roads near hospitals to provide ambulance access the wind gusts continued through Tuesday making for an excruciatingly long four days of harsh Arctic blizzard conditions by Wednesday morning people were running out of food and resources and the City of Buffalo just didn't have the budget to handle this type of situation so for the first time in history nine counties in Western New York were declared by President Carter a federal Disaster Area resulting from the blizzard in just two days 220 million dollars were lost in the economic shutdown and workers in Buffalo lost 36 million dollars in wages after the federal declaration nearly a thousand troops from the U.S army U.S Air Force the Marines and National Guard took to the streets the Salvation Army fed around 100 000 people and the Red Cross fed an additional fifty thousand total damage from the storm was estimated to be 300 million dollars so when did normal LC return well during the first week of February the ridge of high pressure started to finally weaken the Aleutian lows started to move back to the East and the historic Amplified trough started to lift back to the north and now the entire Midwest was above freezing for many places for the first time in 40 consecutive days for those people it must have felt like summer I take that back this summer of 77 was also extreme in temperature especially on the east coast in July a massive blocking High developed over the Southern United States pushing the jet stream well into Canada causing 100 degree temperatures from Phoenix Arizona to New York City this coincided with the infamous New York City blackout of 1977 where citizens took out their frustration with local government in the Blazing heat on July 17th it was 96 in New York City and 80 in Miami on July 25th the blocking High finally collapsed bringing relief to the Northeast but not after multiple 100 degree days so after one of the coldest januaries on record and one of the hottest July's on record winner of 78 would be back to normal right well at least for the start of winter in many ways it was while at times the abnormally large ridge of high pressure returned over the West Coast it collapsed within a few days in 40 degree weather returned to the Midwest and the great lakes and while January of 1977 saw more Alberta Clippers bringing snow and coal to the Midwest in the Great Lakes it didn't see a lot of surface lows originating at more southerly latitudes you know the ones that contain a ton of moisture and can drop feet of snow those types of lows can't really impact the United States when there is a historic trough that is pushing the jet stream down into the Gulf of Mexico the lows that do develop just move over the Atlantic Ocean at that point but in January 1978 the jet stream pattern was still pretty aggressive albeit able to fluctuate due to the absence of intense blocking air masses thus southerly surface lows were very much on the table on January 15th a surface load developed beneath a shortwave trough or a small kink in the jet stream over the Texas Panhandle with polar air to the north and Gulf Air to the South it dumped a foot of snow on the Ohio River Valley on the 16th then as the cold air and Associated trough dug southeastward another surface low developed over the Gulf of Mexico and moved over the Atlantic Ocean this low likely wouldn't be a problem though at least not according to the National Weather Service us who believed it would move rapidly off the coast and result in a mere three inches of snow for New York City but as it crossed over Norfolk Virginia unusually intense snowfall was happening to the West in mountainous West Virginia and Maryland throughout the day on the 20th over a foot of snow fell across West Virginia 13 inches fell in New York City and 21 inches fell in Boston the Hartford Civic Center yukon's basketball arena had collapsed due to the weight of 10 days of snowfall this Nor'easter being the final straw people were rightfully upset that the National Weather service's forecast had been so wrong New York City and Boston were essentially shut down for several days and the National Guard once again was called in to help with the cleanup this is the Nor'easter that nobody really talks about but it's important and you'll soon see why so far in the calendar year of 1978 we have seen two different surface lows with two distinct paths striking chronologically close and that begs the question what would happen if two different distinct surface lows originating in different in areas collided like what if an Alberta Clipper forming near Alberta crossed paths with a surface low originating in Texas well let's think about it Alberta Clippers are very fast moving they contain high winds in very cold air but they lack that moisture that you get from southerly surface lows so they can cause some brutal wind chills and some cold spells but they can't really dump feet of snow southerly surface lows can pick up a ton of moisture from the Gulf and dump at his feet of snow but they lack that extremely high wind and intense cold so by combining these two you essentially get a high wind high moisture Arctic bomb the pressure would be much lower than a standard surface low so all these thermodynamic processes are intensified warm moisture is getting sucked in on the southern side then the warm air rises and condenses faster releasing energy freezing into ice crystals because the pressure is lower the colder air moves faster around the backside Crashing Down to Earth all while being propelled by a brutal r arctic front it sounds crazy and it's a very rare situation but it happened on January 25th one more question before we dive in here if a surface load develops beneath a trough of low pressure how can two distinct surface lows develop a thousand miles away from each other well the answer is that you can have two distinct troughs because there are two jet streams in the northern hemisphere the main jet stream that we've been referring to this entire time is the polar jet stream which is the strongest of the two and separates polar air masses for more temperate air masses but there exists a smaller higher jet stream the subtropical jet which separates the temperate air from tropical air masses these maps that we've been looking at the 500 millibar maps are slicing the atmosphere a bit too low to really see the fastest parts of both jet streams in fact many times you don't even see the subtropical jet at all but on January 24th there were two distinct areas of low pressure Aloft in two separate troughs the northern low cut off by the polar jet stream and the southern low caught off by the subtropical jet stream the important part is that these two jet streams merged which happens often over Michigan so any surface lows that were to develop would follow the flow of the jet streams and potentially merge as well beneath the Eastern side of each trough where vorticity was maximized remember that's the spin in the atmosphere two surface lows developed along the tight temperature gradients the northern low and Alberta Clipper along the arctic front the southern low ingesting millions of gallons of water from the Gulf the southern low began to track to the Northeast bringing an area of rain to its Northwest the Alberta Clipper Now tracking over Minnesota brought moderate snow to the entire state in the evening hours on the 25th several incredible things happen first the lows merged and intensified at an unprecedented rate Cyclones are of course areas of low pressure in how low that pressure is correlates with the intensity of the Cyclone if the pressure at the center of a cyclone is abnormally low then the Cyclone is abnormally intense and the central pressure of this Cyclone was falling fast an entire swath of precipitation now exists tested in a Southwest to Northeast oriented line along the Ohio River Valley to the West blizzard conditions existed in Indiana Illinois and Michigan but to the east in Ohio and Kentucky it was balmy mild and rainy it rained so much that 20 Bridges were washed away in Pike County due to severe flooding as residents went to bed observing 50 degree temperatures and Rain they found it hard to believe that a historic blizzard was on the way as the low continued to deepen and move Northeast throughout the night something wild happened this here is a warm front that usually exists on the northeastern side of mid-latitude cyclones in fact here is the typical structure of a cyclone warm front moving Northeast with warm air to the South cold front stretching to the South with cold air plunging down from the Northwest and in the winter there was also an arctic front containing much colder air stretching to the Northwest compare this typical structure with our Super Cyclone shown here at 5am on the 26th what is happening with that warm front is it actually moving to the West into the arctic front yes that is the rarest Pokemon the westward moving warm front now keep in mind this warm air was about 25 degrees and the Arctic air was around zero so warm is a really relative term but nonetheless warm air was getting entrained into the Cyclone at remarkable speeds causing explosive snowfall in Michigan Illinois Indiana and Ohio that was all enhanced by the relatively warm Great Lakes unlike 1977 the Lakes were largely unfrozen which allowed lake effect snow to break records in Michigan around 7 A.M the third lowest pressure ever recorded in the United States was observed directly below the center in Mount Clemens Michigan at just 956 millibars this was now a category 5 blizzard having the highest possible societal impact due to extreme blizzard conditions and speaking of societal impacts let's talk about what people woke up to on the morning of the 26th in the 5 a.m hour a line of storms containing thunder lightning and grapple and eventually snow was bearing down on Northwest Ohio and Southeastern Michigan but by 6 a.m the arctic front had punched through Northwestern Ohio resulting in a changeover from Heavy Rain to heavy giant snowflakes and 60 mile an hour winds with 80 mile an hour gusts by 7 A.M the temperature had plummeted from 40 degrees to near zero for all intents and purposes this was a cold hurricane bearing down on Ohio in Michigan with power outages occurring early on temperatures within homes in northwest Ohio plummeted to dangerous values and those living in trailer parks were at serious risk for hypothermia if they had no way of getting heat once again ham radio became essential for communication with those in rural areas without power or phone service by mid-morning 100 000 Vehicles were left abandoned on highways and state routes in Michigan as driving became impossible there were several tragic incidents of people needing medical attention during the blizzard but having no way of getting to the hospital one of which was a dehydrated newborn who by some miracle was transported via helicopter which had to be defrosted with industrial heaters the baby survived the flight and ultimately lived another family had their front door blown in by the storm and were also rescued by helicopter workers were desperately trying to clear the roads but because of high winds once they cleared a path it would just get covered in snow again following the blizzard President Carter declared Ohio a disaster area and the National Guard was sent in with gear on c-130s to help clear the roads and Supply food and shelter to those in need many troops were of the same Battalion from Fort Bragg who helped the City of Buffalo the year prior when the winds associated with the arctic front died down a few days later the roads were still not clear covered with packed snow and ice residents in need of food began walking several miles to stores carrying groceries back on sleds the only thing that supermarkets were short of is bread and milk because in the 20th century those are the things that you would Panic by apparently now it's toilet paper the storm was responsible for 51 deaths in Ohio and another 20 in Michigan 24-hour snowfall records were set in Grand Rapids Houghton Lake and Dayton it was incredible to see local communities and local businesses mobilize and really come together to help those in need in fact a few Northwest Ohio local companies came together to create a little blizzard souvenir the firms are marketing Survivor t-shirts these are message shirts which let others know that the wearers survived the blizzard of 78. of course those on the East Coast May well think all this Survivor talk is premature you feel you you are making light of what was a serious event for Northwest Ohio at least yeah I think some of the the people think along those lines but I had it as bad as anyone and we were without power and water and one thing or another but I still think that a blizzard only comes along maybe every 100 years so you know I think it's a memorable occasion and uh you know we're not trying to cash in on anything We're just trying to give the people what they really want as the historic load drifted off to the north temperatures were stuck in the teens and 20s for all of the Midwest in fact the state of the atmosphere looked scarily similar to January of 77. a large ridge formed off the west coast and a deepening trough existed over the Midwest and east coast and on February 5th the Arctic air once again came surging South this time digging further Southeast this put the area of greatest vorticity over the Atlantic Ocean which was bad news for New England a surface low had developed over the ocean and due to a sharp temperature gradient between the cold land and the warmer ocean it quickly gained speed and intensified following the flow of the jet stream cold airoloft surged into Southern Ontario and New York as the low approached the coast from the south the moisture from the ocean condensed rapidly and produced explosive snowfall as it approached New England at a rapid Pace however something was different about this particular extra tropical Cyclone to the north Northeast over Quebec was an area of dense air and high pressure at the surface which was obstructing this low from continuing North this caused the load to stall out off the coast of New Jersey giving Southern New England an extra 12 hours of snow and here is where the Nor'easter that struck two weeks earlier on January 20th came into play as the low moved up the coast on the evening of February 5th forecasters predicted that snow on the Northern side of the low would move into the Boston area early on Monday the 6th many people woke up expecting to see snowfall and instead saw nothing so their confidence was once again shaken in the weather service and with only six inches being forecasted a lot of them just said screw it I'm going to work unfortunately for them snow started falling by the early afternoon and then the wind hit while many people tried to leave work early traffic slowed to a crawl then eventually a standstill by the evening winds in the Boston Metro were now blowing at over 50 miles an hour and thousands of dry drivers abandoned their cars on the interstate 14 drivers who became trapped in their vehicles unfortunately died of carbon monoxide poisoning on the shores of Massachusetts Connecticut and Rhode Island conditions rival to category one hurricane 110 mile an hour gusts hit Scituate Massachusetts accompanied by eight foot waves and a storm surge of 16 feet unfortunately the blizzard occurred during a time of particularly High Tides coinciding with the new moon this caused water to severely flood coastal areas destroying 2500 homes Boston hockey fans who had trudged out to Boston Garden to watch the annual beanpot tournament were shocked when exiting the arena after midnight with a foot of snow already on the ground some fans spent the next few days at the arena stranded eating concession stand food throughout the early morning hours on Tuesday the 8th the Nor'easter had stalled made a small loop back into the Atlantic and continued on its path Northeast to Maine by late evening Boston had seen 27 inches of snow and shockingly Moon rocket Rhode Island saw 38 inches in those 33 hours both cities saw record 24-hour snowfalls power was out in Boston's in Providence for a week Fenway Park was used as a base for the National Guard to come in clear roads and set up shelters for 10 000 people a week-long travel ban was instituted in Boston something that wouldn't be repeated until the 2013 Nor'easter and yes t-shirts were also made for the rest of February temperatures struggled to make it out of the 20s for most of the Midwest with the East Coast being about 10 degrees warmer but this was the last generation defining snowstorm to impact the U.S in two of the coldest winters in recorded history so to answer our question looking back were the winters of 1977 and 1978 actually as bad as people remember yes and I would argue that Buffalo New York is the only city in the U.S currently seeing a winner that Rivals 1977 and even then this has been a ridiculously warm January worry I would also put the North American cold wave of February 2021 in that category particularly for how it affected Texans if a winter like 1977 were to happen today we would be able to accurately forecast it not that that would prevent a chaotic aftermath but it would certainly help to know exactly what was coming and finally a record-setting weather pattern is similar to an economic recession it's not One Singular thing that causes a shrinking economy it's many factors intertwined into a complex cause and effect relationship and this same can be said about the winners of 1977 and 1978. if you enjoyed this video please like And subscribe that really helps me out and if you have a personal memory that you'd like to share about any of the blizzards that we talked about today feel free to share it with us in the comments below hope you guys like this big video it took me pretty much all of January to produce but I'll be back in February with more tornado related content see you then I don't know how many of these t-shirts will be around come August but they're bound to be a big seller over the next few weeks as we look back and remember the big blizzard of 1978. I'm Jim Proctor Toledo 11 News with the mini denim Factory that's great

Channel: weatherbox

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Keywords: winter of 1977, winter of 1978, 1977 blixxard, 1978 blizzard, worst blizzard in the US, polar vortex, catastrophic, 1977-78, ryan hall y'all, weather forecast, severe weather, extreme cold, record snowfall, buffalo blizzard 2022, cleveland ohio snow, f5 tornado, weatherbox, michigan snow record, cold wave, sudden stratospheric warming, winter 1977-1978, blizzard, buffalo, snow

Id: 8lMcWD3EHqM

Length: 36min 28sec (2188 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 27 2023