15 replies to this topic

[Hoosier]

46 years ago, a heavy early season snowstorm struck parts of the Lakes and Ohio Valley. The heaviest snow occurred in a band from central TN northward into MI. Amounts of 8-15" were common in this band with some locally higher totals. Not sure if it was actually a blizzard but if it wasn't it was close.

An unseasonably deep trough was associated with this storm. 850 mb temps of -10C made it as far south as MS/AL with the 0C line plunging well into the Gulf. Snow flakes were even observed near Mobile, Alabama. The surface low had a bit of an unusual trajectory, originating in the FL panhandle and rocketing NNE near/west of the Apps into Canada. This track is not surprising given the 500 mb evolution posted below.


Approximate surface low track (deepened to about 990 mb in the Toronto area)


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[Chicago WX]

8.3" at IND
6.6" at FWA
5.8" at SBN
2.4" at EVV

Looks like LAF got screwed. 1.0" being the highest from the local area (and that's from LAF...back when they used to measure snow).

[dmc76]

November 2-3, 1966- This could be called the "Midwest/Ohio Valley Blizzard of 1966". 9.6" Toledo, 9.5" at Detroit Willow Run, 6 " at Detroit, 8.8 " at Findlay, 9 to 12" in western Ohio, 12.1" Alpena 11.3" Saginaw, 10.5" Ann Arbor, 10.1" Traverse City, 9.0" Lansing, 8.6" Flint, 7.7" Grand Rapids, 6.0" Detroit, 13.1" Louisville, 7.6" Lexington KY, 8.3" Indianapolis, 6.8" Fort Wayne, 5.8" South Bend, 2.4" Evansville, 14.0" Lima, 8.0" Cincinnati, 5.7" Columbus.

[Angrysummons]

Lima must have been in the money shot lol.

I really thought there may be one this season in the first half of November, but oh well, always the 2nd half.

[an uncanny otter]

This storm hit the Windsor, Ontario area especially hard and ended up being one of the city's largest snowfalls. Windsor recorded 15.3" of snow with winds gusting to over 45 mph. Strange that Windsor recorded so much more snow than Detroit did.

[hm8]

What a lovely track

not gonna lie, I didn't see that the scale was in tenths of inches at first and freaked out for a sec.

[DAFF]

Usually Windsor seems to be on the short end of the stick WRT snow totals compared to Detroit. Then again it only takes one stronger band or cell to make all the difference when it comes to snow totals.

[Hoosier]

8.3" at IND
6.6" at FWA
5.8" at SBN
2.4" at EVV

Looks like LAF got screwed. 1.0" being the highest from the local area (and that's from LAF...back when they used to measure snow).

That would've stunk.

Odd quirk about this storm...hundreds of thousands of turkeys were killed (per Storm Data).

[michsnowfreak]

This storm hit the Windsor, Ontario area especially hard and ended up being one of the city's largest snowfalls. Windsor recorded 15.3" of snow with winds gusting to over 45 mph. Strange that Windsor recorded so much more snow than Detroit did.

That is strange!

At 6.0", this storm stands as Detroits 5th biggest November snowstorm on record, but naturally it stands alone for its early date.

Here is the hourly weather at Detroit shows that snow began at 4am November 2nd and did not end until 5pm November 3rd, or 38 consecutive hours. I would guess that it was a very scenic wet snow. Also, it appears it probably took a while for it to start accumulating (even with a rain report the morning of the 2nd), or at the very least was EXTREMELY low ratio snow. It also appears that much of the snow on the 3rd was probably lingering deform snow that hung primarily west of DTW. The brunt of the storm appeared to be 8am Nov 2nd thru 2am Nov 3rd.

NOVEMBER 2, 1966
Time...Temp...Conditions...Visib...Wind....Precip last hour
04:00a....37F...Lgt Snow....5.0 mi....N13mph.......T
05:00a....36F...Lgt Snow....10.5 mi..NNE12mph...0.01"
06:00a....35F...Lgt Snow....10.5 mi..N13mph........T
07:00a....35F...Lgt Snow....10.5 mi..NNE14mph...0.03"
08:00a....35F...Lgt Snow....0.8 mi....NNE13mph...0.02"
09:00a....35F...Lgt Snow....0.8 mi....N14mph........0.03"
10:00a....34F...Lgt Snow....0.8 mi....N15mph........0.04"
11:00a....34F...Lgt Rain.....0.8 mi....N16mph........0.04"
12:00p....35F...Lgt Snow....1.0 mi....N20mph........0.04"
01:00p....35F...Lgt Snow....1.0 mi....NNE21mph...0.03"
02:00p....34F...Lgt Snow....0.8 mi....N20mph........0.01"
03:00p....34F...Snow..........0.1 mi....N20mph........0.02"
04:00p....34F...Snow..........0.5 mi....N23mph........0.02"
05:00p....34F...Snow..........0.5 mi....N28mph........0.05"
06:00p....33F...Lgt Snow....5.5 mi....N17mph........0.06"
07:00p....32F...Lgt Snow....1.0 mi....N22mph........0.04"
08:00p....31F...Lgt Snow....3.0 mi....N25mph........0.03"
09:00p....32F...Lgt Snow....3.0 mi....N20mph........0.04"
10:00p....31F...Lgt Snow....1.0 mi....NNW16mph...0.11"
11:00p....30F...Lgt Snow....0.8 mi....NNW21mph...0.04"
NOVEMBER 3, 1966
12:00a....31F...Lgt Snow....4.0 mi....N20mph........0.04"
01:00a....31F...Lgt Snow....5.5 mi....W16mph.......0.01"
02:00a....29F...Lgt Snow....0.5 mi....WNW17mph..0.04"
03:00a....28F...Lgt Snow....4.0 mi....WNW20mph...T
04:00a....28F...Lgt Snow....4.0 mi....WNW20mph...T
05:00a....28F...Lgt Snow....4.0 mi....NW18mph......T
06:00a....29F...Lgt Snow....4.0 mi....NW16mph......0.01"
07:00a....29F...Lgt Snow....4.0 mi....WNW14mph...0.01"
08:00a....29F...Lgt Snow...10.0 mi...W9mph..........0.01"
09:00a....30F...Lgt Snow...10.5 mi...W16mph........T
10:00a....31F...Lgt Snow....5.5 mi....SW14mph......0.01"
11:00a....32F...Lgt Snow...10.5 mi....W17mph.......0.02"
12:00p....33F...Lgt Snow....3.0 mi.....W20mph.......T
01:00p....34F...Lgt Snow....4.0 mi.....W21mph.......T
02:00p....33F...Lgt Snow....5.5 mi.....WSW23mph..T
03:00p....36F...Lgt Snow....5.0 mi.....WSW24mph..T
04:00p....34F...Blow Snw....5.0 mi.....WSW20mph..T
05:00p....32F...Lgt Snow....4.0 mi.....SW21mph.....0.01"

NOV 2, 1966
Hi- 40F
Lo- 30F
Pcp- 0.70"
Snw- 4.7"
7am Snw Dpth- T

NOV 3, 1966
Hi- 36F
Lo- 28F
Pcp- 0.12"
Snw- 1.3"
7am Snw Dpth- 6"

Note:
In addition to the 6.0" on Nov 2/3...DTW got 0.1" on Nov 4th, 1.6" on Nov 5th, and 4.1" on Nov 28/29...a monthly total of 11.8" which stands 1966 as the snowiest November on record, a relatively low amount for all-time snowiest, not only in comparison with nearby areas, but also in comparison with the following months of Dec, Jan, Feb, and Apr.

[cyclone77]

This storm would have sucked the big one for us guys out west.

[snowstormcanuck]

Approximate surface low track (deepened to about 990 mb in the Toronto area)


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That's what I see in my nightmares around this time of the year.

[Hal]

Looks like Kitchener/Waterloo received 2.28" of snow and 1.06" of rain.

[Chinook]

November 2-3, 1966- This could be called the "Midwest/Ohio Valley Blizzard of 1966". 9.6" Toledo, 9.5" at Detroit Willow Run, 6 " at Detroit, 8.8 " at Findlay, 9 to 12" in western Ohio, 12.1" Alpena 11.3" Saginaw, 10.5" Ann Arbor, 10.1" Traverse City, 9.0" Lansing, 8.6" Flint, 7.7" Grand Rapids, 6.0" Detroit, 13.1" Louisville, 7.6" Lexington KY, 8.3" Indianapolis, 6.8" Fort Wayne, 5.8" South Bend, 2.4" Evansville, 14.0" Lima, 8.0" Cincinnati, 5.7" Columbus.

I think I looked up all that information on the old NCDC web site. (Global summary of the day.) It was a little (or perhaps a lot) easier to estimate snow totals for any one day based off the old web site. I probably should have written down where I got some of that information on my Toledo snowstorms web site.

[dmc76]

I think I looked up all that information on the old NCDC web site. (Global summary of the day.) It was a little (or perhaps a lot) easier to estimate snow totals for any one day based off the old web site. I probably should have written down where I got some of that information on my Toledo snowstorms web site.

Love that web site. Been using it for years.

[Chinook]

Well anyway, if you go to the NCDC web site these days, you can't get the map of snowfall. Correct me if I am wrong, please. Then you can get a listing of high and low temperature and other stuff. See below. This has no information on snowfall and it is from Toledo Express Airport (1955-1972). You used to be able to get complete data from the NCDC that didn't have 99.99 for precip and 999.9 for snow depth. That's bullhonky. They have the numbers for precip and snow depth, and it's probably on Utah State. Utah State just doesn't seem to like Firefox for me.

(Toledo, November 1-30, 1966).
http://www1.ncdc.noa...92015987195.txt

[Chicago WX]

Well anyway, if you go to the NCDC web site these days, you can't get the map of snowfall. Correct me if I am wrong, please. Then you can get a listing of high and low temperature and other stuff. See below. This has no information on snowfall and it is from Toledo Express Airport (1955-1972). You used to be able to get complete data from the NCDC that didn't have 99.99 for precip and 999.9 for snow depth. That's bullhonky. They have the numbers for precip and snow depth, and it's probably on Utah State. Utah State just doesn't seem to like Firefox for me.

(Toledo, November 1-30, 1966).
http://www1.ncdc.noa...92015987195.txt

http://www7.ncdc.noaa.gov/IPS/

Local Climatological Data>>>Ohio>>>Toledo>>>every and any month you want with daily temps, snowfall, rainfall, etc etc.