To start off I am much older then many of you. But here is a list of some of the biggest snow storms I have seen in my life time. First a list of storms from Bay City Michigan,
1. January 26, 1967 25" officially but could have been more. Had 20 foot drifts with 50 to 60 MPH NE winds. The front door was drifted shut, But side door of the house and for about 20 feet from the house there was less than 1 inch of snow. Along with the very high winds the storm had much thunder and lightning. I was in High School at that time as we did not have school for over a week and in fact we were snowed in for 4 days and we lived in town.
2. 11 years to the day on January 26 1978 24" with drifts of over 10 feet. much the same as the 1967 storm very high winds in the 55 MPH range (we lived less than 6 blocks from Saginaw Bay) much thunder and lightning. I was married and working at this time and I did not have work for 2 days. yet another odd thing about the two storms is that they both started late on a Wednesday into Thursday. These two storms are my bench mark for winter storms.
3. Next on the list is the March 17, 1973 St Paddys day storm that storm also had NE winds in the 55 to 60 MPH range with 22" of snow along with thunder snow but this time the wind blew the water of Saginaw Bay up on the shore and into the Saginaw river and into town so we had both 20+ inches of snow and a flood at the same time.
4. in 4th place on my list is February 24 1965 this storm also had high NE winds and a lot of 10 foot drifts
5. in 5 place is the January 13 1979 storm that storm dropped 18" of snow on Bay City with high winds.
6 I will add this storm as it was a lot like the other one but it happened in April this is the April 3 1975 snow storm that dropped 16" of snow with high winds and much thunder snow.
The next storm is from Grand Rapids Michigan.
This storm is know as the GHD storm of February 1 and 2 2011 that storm had a 2 day total of 19" here in Grand Rapids, While windy the winds were not as high as the above storm for Grand Rapids does not get the strong NE winds that Bay City does. Note there have been may moderate large lake effect snows storms here in Grand Rapids but the snow is not as wet so it is much easier to clean up then the wetter heaver storms.
