February 1969 Foothills/Piedmont Deep Snowstorm

[FoothillsNC]

Graphic Intensive Post !!! Huge Files !!!

The major snowstorm of Feb 15-17, 1969 is one of the biggest I can find in the western Piedmont and especially Foothills region of NC. It was small on the geographic zone, but all factors came together to produce a very deep , devastating snowstorm and coincidentally was the storm that I was conceived in. My dad thinks Shelby got nearly 2 feet of snow, but in the records I can only officially find 15 to 17" here, which is around the 1987 snowstorm, and according to local paper records, the 1902 storm was bigger. But after digging through all the data, the NWS and Co-op data and that from the NCDC and State Climate Office of North Carolina, it appears possible that parts of Rutherford, Cleveland, Polk, McDowell and Bumcombe Counties got 15" to 20" of snow with spots reporting more than 20".

The pattern begins with a general El Nino, with an ONI of about 1.0, and the AO and NAO were both in the midst of being very negative.

A strong cutoff broke off the southern stream and entered California and took the southern route as many of the Southeast Winter storms do. It was forced to march due eastward because a 50/50 low was developing very strongly and closed high/ridging developed in tandem around eastern Canada/Baffin Isle/Srn Greenland. This combination set off the major southern storm and forced it out to sea, after dumping 1 to 2 feet of heavy wet snow in the Western Carolinas and significant amounts of snow and ice throughout north Georgia, east Tennessee and southwest Virginia. Due to how the 850 temperatures stratified and how the 5h system tracked, the cold essentially got banked against the foothills and eastern sides of the Southern Appalachians, while aloft the system was too warm for snow in central and eastern Carolinas and from around Atlanta and the west side of the Appalachians. The moisture didn't get much further north than the Va/NC line, so the snow wasn't able to spread up the coast as a true Nor'easter. The High Pressure however locked in from the Great Lakes and provided northeast winds, low level cold and dry air, such that areas that didn't get a lot of snow, received ice and mix. General QPF was 1.0" to 2.0" liquid equivalent, and it was a duration storm. Locals here recall Clyde McClean of WBTV Charlotte claiming "we don't know when it's going to stop", referring to the snowstorm that caught forecasters surprised in this region. The obs show a period of solid snow around 30 hours , which spanned as much as 3 days in sections of the western Piedmont and foothills around Shelby and Charlotte. For Shelby, the Co-op data has snow beginning around 5 PM Saturday and ending around 8 PM Sunday. Also for Shelby, the person recording information has missing precipitation equivalent, but records snow depths of 13" to 24" with drifts 1 to 4 feet, with drifting snow and high winds. Some Co-op sites in the NC/SC border region like Caesar's Head, have 3 full days of snow notation. Locally, the power went out quickly and there was lots of structural damage and roof collapses.

From the State Climate Office of North Carolina on this storm:

"Heavy snow in the southwest with heavy glazing in the south central area,

tapering off northward with light to none along the Virginia border. Mostly

rain in the extreme east. Snow accumulations of up to 20 inches in the southern

Mountains. It was a very destructive ice storm along the central South Carolina

border and extending into South Carolina. There was wholesale breakage of power

and telephone lines and poles. one power company reported 100,000 customers (in

the two Carolinas) without electricity for periods of one to several days, and

over 2,000 men were required to repair the damage. Heavy steel towers carrying

high voltage lines crumpled under the weight of the ice; in one place every

tower reported down over a three mile stretch. Many poultry houses and other

lightly constructed frame building collapsed under the weight of ice and snow

accumulation on roofs; many birds were lost. There were no known deaths or

injuries directly caused by the weather, but traffic accidents were numerous

and at least one death resulted".

Here is the 5H animation. Notice the strong building confluence in the Northeast and adjacent blocking, which forced the strong storm to remain south....plenty of cold dry air at the surface poured into the Carolinas and north GA before and during the Storm:

And some 850 temperatures. It was pretty cold east of the Apps, but warmed up slightly during the heart , so the all snow region was mostly confined to far northern SC and western NC.

It appears the 5h system and surface low tracked in the perfect spot in relation to the high pressure and how the cold was stratified, without becoming too warm aloft and the surface for western Carolinas and northeast GA. It's not often that non mountain locations get 1.5" to 2.0" liquid equivalent of all snow.

The Surface maps, officially:

Here are some Co-op scans from NCDC. It appears some observers got excited about recording the snow and some didn't measure too well. Again, the heaviest of the snow appears to be centered from Charlotte, west toward the mountains, and including northeast Tenn, but not making much enroads into Virginia and not including Atlanta proper. I'm sure the bands and lifting in the western Carolinas resulted in some really strange totals from one county to the next with sharp cut offs at the perimeter of the main heavy snow region. The highest non-official depth I found was Spindale (Rutherford County) NC with 20.5" of snow. East northeast winds probably hammered the mountains around Lake Lure, Spindale, and just south of Marion, NC with nearly 2 feet of snow.

Some other snow totals I gathered from some Co-op sites in southern Va, east TN, NC, SC and north GA:

Lincolnton 13"

Columbus 17"

Forest City 17"

Spindale 20.5"

Morganton 15.5"

Charlotte 13.2"

Durham Trace

Boone 14.5"

Yadkinville 10"

Yadkinville (6 mi east) 2.5"

Columbia 0.8"

Gaffney 7.0"

Greenwood 4.0"

Union 5" +

Athens 2.5"

Blairsville 2.0"

Blue Ridge,Ga Trace

Clayton 6.0"

Gatlinburg 2"

Tri-Cities 13.2"

Knoxville 4"

Wise, Va 8.8"

And with permission of the Shelby Daily Star Newspaper and AP, here are some microfilm scans of the local headlines: As a total weather nerd, I find having this data on old microfilm to be a total treasure...growing up with one ear glued to the NOAA weather radio, and one eye on the daily newspapers to see what was coming. Who knew this was coming though?

They include roof collapses, igloos and just fun stuff if you're a snowlover. (edit** I'll have to add scans another time due to fail***)

Every storm has it's "sweet spot". The eastern sections and coast has March 1980, the Appalachians down to Georgia and Alabama, east TN and west NC have March 1993, the central Piedmont has January 2000, and this area has February 1969. We're due again.

[WxKnurd]

Great write-up and history lesson! Being from the foothills I love reading things like this and now it has me curious what Catawba County saw in that storm, though from looking at the surrounding cities it had to be in the 13" range. I know I have heard stories about my grandfather saying my great grandfaher told about the Catawba River below the now Oxford Dam freezing solid enough to drive Model T's and take horse and buggy's across, might have to dive into some historical accounts to see what I can find.

[FoothillsNC]

If the mods can allow me, I have two more files to add to the post. I exceeded the global quota. Here they are, I'd prefer they be with the original post.

[MADDOGG]

Great post!

[atomic_rooster]

I remember this storm well. I was 14 years old and living in Rockingham ,N.C. It started saturday snowing hard. It snowed about 9 inches and then saturday night it turned to sleet. Sometime around mid-nite my father woke me up and told me to go outside with him . I was in shock when we took the flash light and shined the light on the trees by the house ! The temp was 30 degrees and it was raining real hard . It rained the rest of the nite and we heard loud shot-gun sounding blasts all night from the limbs breaking and hitting the house. The power was off by morning sunday and still raining. By sunday afternoon most of the power poles in the town of Rockingham and Cordova were broke in Half !! I had never seen that before. Too make this a short story --we were with-out power for a week --in town--and others were two week waits.. It took survival back to the stone ages....but in a way it was fun ! But ----- I dont want to see another ice storm that knocks the power out for that many days in a row.

[FoothillsNC]

I remember this storm well. I was 14 years old and living in Rockingham ,N.C. It started saturday snowing hard. It snowed about 9 inches and then saturday night it turned to sleet

You had 9", my map is probably off. Its always risky going by co-op data. Check out the 29" in Caesars' Head , SC which is near the NC/SC border above GSP. My dad swears it was close to 2 feet here, but he's 80 something. We both remember the 1987 storm which dropped 15" here officially, and he says the 1969 storm was much bigger, with deep waves and ruts of snow in uptown Shelby . Eh, who knows how deep it really was. It was probably a nice one though.

[atomic_rooster]

The ice storm was mainly from a line from Wadesboro,N.C to just east of Laurinburg--North and south of those area's surrounding counties. West of that area was mostly snow and all rain east of Laurinburg. That was the worst i ever seen ice on trees-ever.

[GaWx]

KATL got only 1.2" of accum. from 0.68" of liquid equiv 2/15-6, which is a pretty sig. amount of liquid equiv.. Highs were 33F/32F those two days..i.e., cold enough for very little melting. So, based on that very low 2:1 ratio, I'm guessing that a decent portion, if not much, of the 1.2" was from IP and ZR though it wasn't a massive outage producing ZR if there was any ZR. I'm guessing that the northern ATL burbs had more accum. as a result of more snow and less IP?? If I were at the library, I'd do some old-fashioned research of the ATL newspapers.

[Spidyr2k]

Oh, if this forum had been around back then.........MADNESS! I get Robert's point...sometimes, winter weather can happen that is quite unexpected. And that's just why I love winter weather. It's a bit of a lottery for us Southerners

[NCBlizzard]

Awesome right up! Really enjoyed the scans of the newspapers and weather observations. We are definitely due for another big one.

[GaWx]

Oh, if this forum had been around back then.........MADNESS! I get Robert's point...sometimes, winter weather can happen that is quite unexpected. And that's just why I love winter weather. It's a bit of a lottery for us Southerners

The novelty of wintry precip. in the SE is what makes it extra fun. That's one reason I wouldn't ever move up north to experience frequent wintry precip. The higher frequency of it would take away a good bit of the fun since it is more ordinary. That's not to say that I wouldn't enjoy a SE winter with multiple wintry events. For similar reasons, I'd enjoy 3" of snow in Savannah even more than 3" in north Atl. and probably even more than, say, 7" of snow at north Atl. because 3" at Sav. has occurred only three times in the last 43 years whereas 7" has occurred in north Atl. three times in just the last 30 years.

[HKY_WX]

Love these posts from you Robert! Where do u get these old newspaper clips?

[FoothillsNC]

Love these posts from you Robert! Where do u get these old newspaper clips?

Thanks. The library has our's on microfilm. If you get a chance , head to your Catawba library and see if you can find the local paper there, I'd love to see more info on this one. The co-op data left a lot to be desired. It was interesting seeing all the differences between stations and even officially stations like GSP and CLT had some big differences than just north and west of there, so it must have been a nightmare of a storm to forecast back then. I really wish I could see some actual photographs from then, but my parents don't have any. If anyone has any, please post them.

[NorthernUpstateSC]

Robert,

The biggest snow I can remember here in pickens county sc was the 16 inches of snow we had on January 7th 1988. I remember it being pretty mild if not borderline warm for almost the entire month of december until around the first of the new year that year. I was in short sleeves and had to open the windows for christmas that year.Then it got progressively colder leading up to the 7th and then at 3am that morning there was a huge wind gust that rattled the house and I got up to look outside and it started snowing hard all at once. There was no few flurries and it getting progressively harder to get started, the bottom fell out all at once.

It snowed up until dark and the temps fell through the teens throughout the day and there were snow-drifts up past the bottom part of my dads car windows. This was on a thursday and the first snow plow did not come by our house until sunday morning around 11am. There was snow on the ground for the entire month of january and the upstate set a record for the most days in a row where the low temps were in the teens. It was one of the coldest months I could remember and was the second coldest month in my mind after the brutal cold in december 1989. I-85 looked like a war-zone with all the stranded 18 wheelers and cars and the governor had to call out the national guard and declared the upstate a disaster area.

I may be wrong on this but, I think this one one of those cut-off upper level lows the southeast has been experiencing alot of this year. Any way you can do a write up on this storm?

[FoothillsNC]

Robert,

The biggest snow I can remember here in pickens county sc was the 16 inches of snow we had on January 7th 1988. I remember it being pretty mild if not borderline warm for almost the entire month of december until around the first of the new year that year. I was in short sleeves and had to open the windows for christmas that year.Then it got progressively colder leading up to the 7th and then at 3am that morning there was a huge wind gust that rattled the house and I got up to look outside and it started snowing hard all at once. There was no few flurries and it getting progressively harder to get started, the bottom fell out all at once.

It snowed up until dark and the temps fell through the teens throughout the day and there were snow-drifts up past the bottom part of my dads car windows. This was on a thursday and the first snow plow did not come by our house until sunday morning around 11am. There was snow on the ground for the entire month of january and the upstate set a record for the most days in a row where the low temps were in the teens. It was one of the coldest months I could remember and was the second coldest month in my mind after the brutal cold in december 1989. I-85 looked like a war-zone with all the stranded 18 wheelers and cars and the governor had to call out the national guard and declared the upstate a disaster area.

I may be wrong on this but, I think this one one of those cut-off upper level lows the southeast has been experiencing alot of this year. Any way you can do a write up on this storm?

that storm I remember well, I was a senior in high school and my physics teacher let me diagram it on the chalkboard (true weenie). I used the weather channel "look ahead" segment to get all my info from, worked out pretty good. But no that wasn't an upper low, just a flat wave travelling across the deep south and we had arctic high pressure sprawling down from the northwest and north all week, so it was good timing. A big strip of 12" totals (and higher) stretched from OKC to MEM to CLT if I recall, and western SC was the really sweet spot. GSP has a study on it. I did one on the other forum I think. Anyway here's the 5h animation and some other maps... Its the only snow storm I can recall with temps staying in the teens througout the event here.

[NorthernUpstateSC]

Thanks Robert!

[GaWx]

that storm I remember well, I was a senior in high school and my physics teacher let me diagram it on the chalkboard (true weenie). I used the weather channel "look ahead" segment to get all my info from, worked out pretty good. But no that wasn't an upper low, just a flat wave travelling across the deep south and we had arctic high pressure sprawling down from the northwest and north all week, so it was good timing. A big strip of 12" totals (and higher) stretched from OKC to MEM to CLT if I recall, and western SC was the really sweet spot. GSP has a study on it. I did one on the other forum I think. Anyway here's the 5h animation and some other maps... Its the only snow storm I can recall with temps staying in the teens througout the event here.

Robert,

Yeah, this Jan. 1988 storm was fairly close to the typical flat/weak Miller A that gives major S/IP to ATL

Keep in mind that going strictly by amounts in this case can be quite deceiving. KATL got 4.2", much of which was IP, from 0.82" of liquid equivalent. (Almost none was lost to melting because it was quite cold.) It was a very high impact storm because so much of it was IP. The way I look at it, this 4.2" from 0.82" liquid was the equivalent of 8.2" of snow impactwise, if not more. Basically, there was about as much frozen stuff on the ground as there would have been had there been 8.2" of snow. It just didn't look that way because it was twice as dense. Arguably, 4.2" of mostly IP are tougher drivingwise vs. 8.2" of snow in most cases. Also, arguably, 4.2" of IP takes longer to melt than 8.2" of snow in many cases.

[NCBlizzard]

Just out of curiosity have you seen any other reference to the 1902 storm that was mentioned in the article above?

[NavarreDon]

Robert,

The biggest snow I can remember here in pickens county sc was the 16 inches of snow we had on January 7th 1988. I remember it being pretty mild if not borderline warm for almost the entire month of december until around the first of the new year that year. I was in short sleeves and had to open the windows for christmas that year.Then it got progressively colder leading up to the 7th and then at 3am that morning there was a huge wind gust that rattled the house and I got up to look outside and it started snowing hard all at once. There was no few flurries and it getting progressively harder to get started, the bottom fell out all at once.

It snowed up until dark and the temps fell through the teens throughout the day and there were snow-drifts up past the bottom part of my dads car windows. This was on a thursday and the first snow plow did not come by our house until sunday morning around 11am. There was snow on the ground for the entire month of january and the upstate set a record for the most days in a row where the low temps were in the teens. It was one of the coldest months I could remember and was the second coldest month in my mind after the brutal cold in december 1989. I-85 looked like a war-zone with all the stranded 18 wheelers and cars and the governor had to call out the national guard and declared the upstate a disaster area.

I may be wrong on this but, I think this one one of those cut-off upper level lows the southeast has been experiencing alot of this year. Any way you can do a write up on this storm?

Remember that storm vividly! Lived in Franklin at the time. I was at a friends house watching west coast nba games on a sat tv till about 1am & the moon was out. I was freaking out cuz I thought it would be snowing so I went home to go to bed. My boss called me around 2:15 to say it was snowing hard! I looked out the window and the ground was white. temp was around 25°. By 10 am we had a almost a foot & temp was 19°. Finally quit snowing around 4:30 pm & we had about 16". Was a classic southern pummler!

[FoothillsNC]

Just out of curiosity have you seen any other reference to the 1902 storm that was mentioned in the article above?

not yet. If you find any info, let us know. I haven't looked yet.

[NCBlizzard]

not yet. If you find any info, let us know. I haven't looked yet.

After just a quick search,

"For the Charlotte-Douglas Airport in North Carolina, a record daily snowfall of 11.6" broke the old record of 6.5 set in 1926. The snowfall was also the 3rd greatest on a single calendar day following 14" on 2/15/1902 and 12.1" on 1/7/1988."

http://www.dnr.sc.go...b25_27_2004.php

1902

"Charlotte, NC was in the middle of a three day snowstorm that produced 17.4 inches of snow, their biggest snowstorm on record."

http://www.examiner....nadoes-flooding

"February 14 1902- Nashville receives 8" of snow. "

http://www.srh.noaa....ohx/?n=calendar

It appears it may have been an el-nino year, http://mset.rst2.edu/portfolios/k/khanna_n/meteorology/snowstorms.htm

[Eric]

Here are some photos of the February 1969 snowstorm that I posted at Eastern some years ago. They were taken in Monroe, NC. Monroe officially received 11" of snow. I can only imagine how much snow would have fallen had it not changed over to freezing rain.

[WFFaithful]

fun to know. thanks.

[Freeze]

"Robert,

The biggest snow I can remember here in pickens county sc was the 16 inches of snow we had on January 7th 1988"

That 1988 storm was the most impressive storm I have experienced:

The weather service had been forecasting the snowstorm for Charlotte three or four days ahead of time. They ended up being dead on, which, back in 1988 was quite amazing. I listened to WBT radio for all my weather forecasts at the time and they used Joe Sobel as their weather guy. He was always very conservative with his reports but starting on Sunday of that week he said "lookout for the potential of snow by Thursday or Friday".By Tuesday he said it looks definate and by Wednesday morning he said not only definate but a big snow on Thursday. Wednsday started clear and cold. Everyone in town knew about the approaching storm and it showed with the empty shelves in the grocery stores. By early afternoon clouds started rolling in and by early evening the sky was covered.

The snow started falling very early Thursday mornning and snowed all day Thursday. We ended up with a good foot just outside of downtown Charlotte. But perhaps the thing about that storm that was the most impressive was the cold immediatly after and the duration of the snow on the ground. In fact, there was snow on the roads during the entire following week. It wasn't until this past January snow (I'm in Mooresville, NC) that I've witnessed snow on the ground for that long.

I lived in Atlanta during the March 13th 1993 blizzard but the big storm of January 1988 still ranks as the best snow of my life and I'm 49 years old.

[griteater]

Good post Foothills on the '69 storm. There were some good lines in those newspapers..."Boy Scouts stranded in Kings Mtn said they were wet and hungry"....and "150 college girls were stranded among the 1,000 men at Davidson College..girls were in town for a social"

A big strip of 12" totals (and higher) stretched from OKC to MEM to CLT if I recall, and western SC was the really sweet spot. GSP has a study on it. I did one on the other forum I think. Anyway here's the 5h animation and some other maps... Its the only snow storm I can recall with temps staying in the teens througout the event here.

Regarding Jan '88, it's the only storm I've seen here where the snow stuck immediately to the roads. Looking back through the obs on that one, CLT had moderate snow and 0.2 miles visibility each hour from 8AM to 5PM on 1/7/88

The 3 coldest snows I know of for CLT would be Feb 18, 1979 (10 in), March 1, 1980 (6.8 in), and Jan 7, 1988 (12.1 in).....each one of those had snow with temps in the teens...but the coldest of the 3 was the '79 storm. CLT had a temp of 12 deg at 1PM, with moderate snow on 2/18/79. That one ended up as the infamous President's Day Storm in the mid Atlantic.

[FoothillsNC]

CLT had a temp of 12 deg at 1PM, with moderate snow on 2/18/79.

that's amazing. Thanks for that info!

[mclean02]

i have been trying to find out whats the most snow greensboro has ever had i cant find any thing on the net about it ??

[Jon]

i have been trying to find out whats the most snow greensboro has ever had i cant find any thing on the net about it ??

1930 14.3"

http://www.erh.noaa....recip.snow.html

Welcome to the board

[mclean02]

Thanks!! I thought that it would be more then that wow lol!

[burgertime]

Great post Robert. If you want this in a PDF let me know and I can make it happen.