The Blizzard of 1978
January 26th, 2013 at 1:25 am by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather
<–click map to enlarge. Today is Blizzard Anniversary Day (35th anniversary!). The Blizzard of 1978 ranks as the #1 snowstorm ever for Grand Rapids and much of Lower Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. The barometer reading of 28.28″ in Cleveland still ranks as the lowest non-hurricane barometer reading in U.S. history. Sarnia, Ontario reported a barometer of 28.21″ and Grand Rapids also set a record barometer reading 28.68″. Grand Rapids had 15″ of snow in about 15 hours (19.2 total). Muskegon picked up 52″ of snow in 4 days. The Traverse City area had up to 28″. Houghton Lake and Indianapolis had over 15″ of snow and Lansing recorded over 19″. South Bend recorded a four-day total of 36″. Wind gusts of 42 mph blew the snow off roofs (a good thing). Wind gusts in Ohio topped 80 mph. The storm hit on a Wednesday Night, and many schools didn’t reopen until the following Monday. The heavy snow started shortly after 10 PM on 1/25. I measured a snow drift 14-feet high. Drifts in Ohio reached 20-feet. The entire Ohio turnpike was closed as was most of I-75 through Lower Michigan and Ohio. All air and rail service came to a halt. I was at the TV station for 3 days without leaving. One news anchor came to work on a snowmobile. For you weather junkies…this storm deepened 40 millibars in 24-hours – we call that “bombogenesis”. Seventy deaths were blamed on the storm, including 51 in Ohio. At least 22 people in Ohio died outside while struggling through the blizzard. Another 13 people were found dead in stuck cars, and 13 died in unheated homes. The National Guard were called out in Michigan and Ohio and the University of Michigan closed for the first time in 140 years. Over 125.000 vehicles were abandoned in the storm. It took 3 to 5 days to move the abandoned cars and open the expressways. After this, we had the coldest February ever in G.R. and the 5th coldest March. Snow piles from the storm lingered into April. Read more about the storm here in Michigan, in Ohio, cool pictures and more here. Here’s the governor of Ohio’s voice with a little film. Here’s some eyewitness accounts from West Michigan and video of a newscast from Cleveland. Mark sent a link to pics. from Breckenridge. Here’s write-up on the storm from the NWS in Detroit. Leave a comment if you have a memory of the big storm. Here’s Local Snowfall Amounts from the GRR NWS. This thread has been moved up from last year. Also, here’s TIME MAGAZINE’S top ten blizzards of all time. New comments for 2013 start at #36.
Fixxxer needs a job…We have one for him!!
alright why the hell do some of you care if i work or not? i don’t suck unemployment nor welfare, so why does it concern a few of you? jealous because i got a workers comp settlement or what?
also looks as we will be in the 40′s & 50″s for more than a few days rj.
I actually think that the middle-end of February will be warmer than average… But until then, expect cold n’ snow!!
thanks for the trip down memory lane, now can we talk about Sunday/Sunday nights mess? maybe not so much for G.R. but Kzoo etc. could have a real ice problem.
get your golf clubs ready rj because alot of this snow will be gone by months end.
fixxxer: I think, you are wrong. Bill even says colder through the end of the month. Also, we are only supposed to get to the mid 40s on Tuesday. Cold front comes through on Wednesday sending the temps back down to the teens and 20s.
More Lake Effect and perhaps, a synoptic snow event. I bet we stay cool into February! WINTER is here! C’mon and celebrate it, fixxxer!!
Fixxxer needs a job not a blog! …….What a dummieeee….
Wish I could have remembered this..I was just shy of 3 at the time.
It was very memorable . . . . the only “vehicles” out were snowmobiles, when you looked out the windows towards streetlights you saw driving heavy snow coming down, otherwise just blackness at night . . . drifts reached 2nd stories of businesses and houses. . . .
This coming icy event keeps reminding of the ice storm on April 3-4, 2003 (it obviously won’t be as bad) we lost power for over a week… And I remember seeing lightning and walking into 7/11 with tons of ice falling from the sky! By far the worst ice storm I remember!!
I remember it well. I was a senior at Kelloggsvile High school and lived on Illinois st and we tried to take out the snow mobiles. The snow was to high and they would just sink in the snow. We kept trying and we went to the golf course on 44th street and had fun. We stay out a long time and we rode until we hit a drift (we thought is was the ground) snow mobile we one way we went another way and that was enough for me. It had to be a 7 foot drift. Went home sat in front of the fire place and the following day had to dig out the truck that was in the middle of the road,
I marvel at the memories triggered by the commemoration of the blizzard of ’78. I was a senior in high school at home on Emerson Lake in Walhalla Michigan. It had been a very cozy night, “buttoned up” in my parents house with the wood stove full and burning, and the insulated drapes covering all of the sliding glass doors of the two story house with the walk out basement. Early the next morning, when we opened the drapes to see the usual view of the lake, we saw only a wall of snow. The entire house was buried! We tried to shovel our way to get the snowmobiles out, but they couldn’t get any traction in the many feet deep fluffy stuff. After another two days, my dad and I finally snowshoed to the highway a half mile down our road. Once to US 10, we walked in the one lane “tunnel” that a huge snow blower had carved.
Of course, we headed straight to the bar at Emerson Lake Inn. We found a few hearty blizzard refugees there, and Don Williams, the restaurant owner, was handing out “necessities” like cigarettes, beer, milk and bread. The windows there were completely obstructed by snow too – the entire building covered. By then, we could watch squirrels burrowing into the snow through the glass.
What a crazy, fun time we had living in a truly freakish blizzard. We may as well have trekked to the moon.
I remember the storm well.I was 11 at the time.Our family went to the Muskegon Mohawks-Grand Rapids OWLS hockey game at Stadium arena.The drive home,my dad had his head out the window driving 25 MPH since you couldn’t see anything!He was swearing the whole time…the echo of his rant is still hovering somewhere over lake Michigan.We didn’t say a word the whole trip home.Dad got us there safe.A few days later,There was a drift at least ten ft high near our house in the intersection of Columbus and Hopkins near Fricanos pizza.My mom has pictures of us playing and sledding on it.Later that day,a city snow plow tried to fo through the drift,and spun around getting stuck.I have never seen that happen since.A front-end loader had to pull the truck out of the drift and clear the intersection.Those were the days…! Got almost a foot of snow in GH yesterday.
Thanks for the comment, Lonnie. I remember going to the Owls game once and it was raining – the roof was leaking in several places, a lot. Had some good pizza at Fricano’s over the years.
I only remember the ’78 blizzard vaguely. I was living in a little town between Milwaukee and Madison, WI then…I remember being off school for a bit, probably wasn’t as bad on that side of the lake. But the storm that sticks in my mind is the biggie on New Years Eve / Day ’78-’79.
Get ready we have a good lake effect SNOW set up for the middle and end of next week. It is simply a FANTASTIC winter day outside! Get outside and enjoy winter people! I am heading out to the trails to enjoy this ROCK n ROLL GREAT weather!!!!!!!!!
Thanks a bunch for posting this information Bill. I remember riding out this storm, and buying a front wheel drive car shortly there after, it got around much better than my 1970 Cuda did in the snow.
I remember snowmobiling down 44th to Clyde Park then north to 28th and making a turn around Rogers Plaza. Waved at the Wyoming cops as I passed them on Clyde Park. They actually waved back!
Watched the Conrail snowplow train head south out of GR too. They slowed down for NOTHING and busted thru some big drifts on their way to Kalamazoo and Elkhart.
I missed a chance to run on the C&O plow north to Petoskey. They were gone from home for over a week, sorta regret taking the phone off the hook that morning so I could SLEEP for once. Money making days on the railroad that winter if you could stay awake.
I remember it well! I had just brought my first child home from the hospital after having her on January 16 and then we were snowed into our little apartment in Saugatuck for days! The cars that were parked on our street were completely buried by the huge snow drifts. I also remember watching the young weatherman, Bill Steffen, who was on the air for days with the storm coverage. The magnitude of that blizzard was actually awe inspiring and it, along with the Palm Sunday tornadoes, remain landmark memories for me.
1978 in Byron Center…..we had 27 inches on the level…….we made snow forts……..those were the good ol days…
My husband and I were JUST talking about this storm this morning. I looked for some info about it and didn’t find much, soooo, thank-you Bill Steffen for all this great data!!
i have a question for bill steffen.what would bethe chanceof something like that happening again?it seems like our weather in west michigan has changed alot from what it used to be.
It’ll happen again at some point. I’ve had two of these in my lifetime that shut everything down.
do u think a storm like this is on its way? some old timers say the conditions are shaping up for a storm like this?
How much snow did GR get in that storm 2 yrs ago?
About 16 ” total.
I wonder if I can make Montana on my Harley if I start out early tomorrow?
Better forecasting and snow removal. Wasnt that bad.
I’m in my 60′s and no longer have any of my comics from childhood. They seemed so flimsy and cheap; even the paper they were printed on was so quick to yellow and turn brittle. Who knew they would ever be worth anything? I find it fascinating that they have become so valuable. Meanwhile, the fancy hardcover books that I valued, paid a lot for, and preserved (think encyclopedias, coffee table books, etc), are now worth nothing.It seems to me that there is a deeper truth here: Look around you. The things you see everywhere and that don’t seem worth saving are the very things which everyone else is also throwing away. If these items have the extra quality of bringing back fond memories of childhood (like the old comics do) they will someday in the distant future become sought after and valuable. The trick is to figure out which items to save. I am guessing 45′s and LP’s are a good bet. Any thoughts?
I was a first-year teacher in Benton Harbor the morning this blizzard hit, and was on a picket line during the full fury of the storm. I actually had fun with my colleagues and the few high school kids that showed up just to see us, I guess. The best part was the vice-principal, Mr. Overley, sneaking hot coffee to all of us so we’d stay warm. The parents were livid at the superintendent for not closing school–everyone within probably 100 miles of us was closed–and his decision turned public support in the teachers’ favor. After having worked without a contract for one school year and half of another, things were settled after that in two or three days–once everybody dug out!!
I was born in the Blizzard of ’78 – 7:20 am on Jan. 27th! I remember listening to the stories of trying to get my mom to the hospital (only 2 miles) but it took a tractor, a four wheel drive pick up and a snowmobile.
I was stuck and unable to drive or walk to work at the time. My boyfriend tried to come rescue me and also got stuck in the snow. Cars on street were completely covered in snow, after snow plows came through, impossible to even find your car. It was the best 3 days of my life. My boyfriend at the time, became my husband. We were stuck together, had to get along. We completed a 1000 piece puzzle and it was so fun. Cold, low on food but we made it work. Actually a great way to start a long term relationship. We have now been married 32 years
I still have an old recording somewhere on cassette tape from the night before the storm from NOAA weather radio talking about the merger of the two lows.