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Happy 35th Anny. Blizz of 78 upcoming

Damage In Tolland

By Damage In Tolland,
in New England

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CT Rain

CT Rain

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Between 1/13 and 2/7 there was an incredible 49.5" of snow at BDL. There was the 1/17-1/18 10-inch storm followed by 1" of freezing rain and sleet that lead to the collapse of the Civic Center. The very next day there was a 15.5" snowstorm at BDL during the big 1/19-1/21 blizzard. 

 

A brief thaw on 1/26 (58F) lead to a sizable amount of melting but you have to imagine the piles on the sides of roads were still huge.

 

All of that set the stage for the great blizzard where incredible snow totals (20" downtwon HFD and 25" New Haven) were whipped by hurricane force wind gusts. Even inland areas that rarely get a puff of wind during a snowstorm experienced very impressive wind gusts that turned a more pedestrian snow amount into the most memorable blizzard of the 20th century. 

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Typhoon Tip

Typhoon Tip

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Between 1/13 and 2/7 there was an incredible 49.5" of snow at BDL. There was the 1/17-1/18 10-inch storm followed by 1" of freezing rain and sleet that lead to the collapse of the Civic Center. The very next day there was a 15.5" snowstorm at BDL during the big 1/19-1/21 blizzard. 

 

A brief thaw on 1/26 (58F) lead to a sizable amount of melting but you have to imagine the piles on the sides of roads were still huge.

 

All of that set the stage for the great blizzard where incredible snow totals (20" downtwon HFD and 25" New Haven) were whipped by hurricane force wind gusts. Even inland areas that rarely get a puff of wind during a snowstorm experienced very impressive wind gusts that turned a more pedestrian snow amount into the most memorable blizzard of the 20th century. 

 

If anyone is interested you should read about what was going on during that 58F thaw -

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ORH_wxman

ORH_wxman

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Between 1/13 and 2/7 there was an incredible 49.5" of snow at BDL. There was the 1/17-1/18 10-inch storm followed by 1" of freezing rain and sleet that lead to the collapse of the Civic Center. The very next day there was a 15.5" snowstorm at BDL during the big 1/19-1/21 blizzard. 

 

A brief thaw on 1/26 (58F) lead to a sizable amount of melting but you have to imagine the piles on the sides of roads were still huge.

 

All of that set the stage for the great blizzard where incredible snow totals (20" downtwon HFD and 25" New Haven) were whipped by hurricane force wind gusts. Even inland areas that rarely get a puff of wind during a snowstorm experienced very impressive wind gusts that turned a more pedestrian snow amount into the most memorable blizzard of the 20th century. 

 

 

I'd have to imagine there was still snow depth after the Cleveland bomb...ORH had a snow depth of 11" still after that cutter, so even BDL had to have had a cement glacier. The piles and large snow banks made it difficult though to deal with the Feb '78 storm.

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JERSEYSNOWROB

JERSEYSNOWROB

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My first memorable snowstorm growing up in the heart of South Jersey. I was 6 yrs old at the time. Even though we only got a bit over a foot of snow, the winds alone created massive drifts which was amazing to me as a 6yr old. I still vividly remember my next door neighbor's car completely buried and cars stuck on the main road by my house for a few days!! They weren't prepared for major snowstorms back in the day in South Jersey. ha ha ha

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CT Rain

CT Rain

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I'd have to imagine there was still snow depth after the Cleveland bomb...ORH had a snow depth of 11" still after that cutter, so even BDL had to have had a cement glacier. The piles and large snow banks made it difficult though to deal with the Feb '78 storm.

 

Yeah the "depth" was 6" prior to the storm but given the amount of snow prior to that... I imagine the piles were massive outside of the official depth on the ground. 

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CT Rain

CT Rain

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As bad it was in Ct they got screwed compared to RI and Mass, glad I lived in RI, only far Eastern CT really got the best. Plainfield to Woodstock CT was in the 30"+ range. NBC 30 had 1-3"

 

Yeah... too bad you were in South County.

 

The KU book has the only ob in Washington County at 25" with 25 inches on Long Island and New Haven. Looks like we all did about the same.

 

36" in Plainfield and 38" in Woonsocket. 

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codfishsnowman

codfishsnowman

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Yeah... too bad you were in South County.

 

The KU book has the only ob in Washington County at 25" with 25 inches on Long Island and New Haven. Looks like we all did about the same.

 

36" in Plainfield and 38" in Woonsocket. 

so downtown hartford had 20 inches but bdl only had 17 inches or is there discussion that they undermeasured?

also do you know what the springfield area received? i am curious since i live here now and this area seems to really struggle in noreasters.

 

i grew up in Bristol Ct but was too young to remember the storm. I remember the Bristol Press saying that 18 inches fell. My parents had a tremendous photo album of the storm and judging from the pics which were taken at least a day later id say anywhere from 18 to 24 seems right even allowing for a few inches of cement base.

 

if i remember correctly from an article i read a long time ago, most of what central ct up to bdl and spfd got was on the front end dump of the storm with the raging twenty four hour snowfall going on mainly east of the river. I seem to remember something about the ct valley and much of ct west of the river in general being dry slotted or the snow was very light after the initial surge.

 

what i do remember though in people's retrospectives over the years was of tremendous winds and drifting and i am sure that 18 to 20 inches of crazy drifted snow looks a lot worse that that much on the level.

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CT Rain

CT Rain

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so downtown hartford had 20 inches but bdl only had 17 inches or is there discussion that they undermeasured?

also do you know what the springfield area received? i am curious since i live here now and this area seems to really struggle in noreasters.

 

i grew up in Bristol Ct but was too young to remember the storm. I remember the Bristol Press saying that 18 inches fell. My parents had a tremendous photo album of the storm and judging from the pics which were taken at least a day later id say anywhere from 18 to 24 seems right even allowing for a few inches of cement base.

 

if i remember correctly from an article i read a long time ago, most of what central ct up to bdl and spfd got was on the front end dump of the storm with the raging twenty four hour snowfall going on mainly east of the river. I seem to remember something about the ct valley and much of ct west of the river in general being dry slotted or the snow was very light after the initial surge.

 

what i do remember though in people's retrospectives over the years was of tremendous winds and drifting and i am sure that 18 to 20 inches of crazy drifted snow looks a lot worse that that much on the level.

 

 

That's right... C/W CT had the front end dump and then things lessened. BDL had 17" from the storm and HFD had 20". There were 2 reports around HVN of 24"/25" so I think they may have caught some better banding.

 

The subsequent snow beyond the first afternoon/night really clobbered Windham County and into RI and E Mass. 

 

While the 15-25" in most of CT was impressive the snow on the ground (and great snow banks) were whipped by crazy gusts for a snowstorm away from the water.

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Ginx snewx

Ginx snewx

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Yeah... too bad you were in South County.

The KU book has the only ob in Washington County at 25" with 25 inches on Long Island and New Haven. Looks like we all did about the same.

36" in Plainfield and 38" in Woonsocket.

Couple of myths we busted years ago. The Westerly Airport observer had to leave and could not get back until well after the storm subsided. W/E were crazy high yet drifts were 15-25 feet, tough to get snow at 6-1 to drift like that. More accurate estimations of snow depth at the near shore locations were virtually impossible due to sustained and gusty winds sometimes gusting near and above 70 mph for extended periods. A severe T storm sat over Scounty for as long as 3 hours with constant lightning high winds and rates of snow unseen in modern times. The closer to the shore you were the more intense the storm was, while interior areas running from NE CT to interior EMass had more accumulation the wind prone areas received the more dynamics. Snow cores to my knowledge were few and far between and w/e like trop systems were substantially underdone. Based on my experience and photos I have seen areas in interior RI Mass jackpotted. Once in a lifetime and I hope you young guns get the experience some day. I would recommend if it comes, get to a near shore area, the experience is surreal.
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CoastalWx

CoastalWx

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From what I can tell and perhaps those numbers prove it, there was a stationary band as it was occulding from near BOS and SW to interior SE MA and adjacent RI. It may have also been related to the dryslot that moved to extreme se ma where the dryslot enhances precip by lowering stability in the mid levels. The storm got banded when it occluded, but one band sat in the aforementioned region. It also could have been related to coastal frontogenesis in that region too. 

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Typhoon Tip

Typhoon Tip

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From what I can tell and perhaps those numbers prove it, there was a stationary band as it was occulding from near BOS and SW to interior SE MA and adjacent RI. It may have also been related to the dryslot that moved to extreme se ma where the dryslot enhances precip by lowering stability in the mid levels. The storm got banded when it occluded, but one band sat in the aforementioned region. It also could have been related to coastal frontogenesis in that region too. 

 

 

It was a TROWAL 

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Baroclinic Zone

Baroclinic Zone

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Really? I didn't think anyone in Mass exceded 40"

HubbDave lived there as well at the time. He can give some credence to that number. Granted I was only 3-1/2 but I posted pictures of the aftermath. It was nuts. I don't think any measurement was accurate given the intensity and longevity of the storm. SEMA was in one of those stationary bands as Scott alluded to.

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HoarfrostHubb

HoarfrostHubb

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I was 10 and in 4th grade. My school roof collapsed and we missed several (3-4) weeks before we could be moved to a new one

My parents had a 1975 VW microbus and a 1972 beetle. Both were completely buried with a foot of snow on the roof. When we opened our garage door it completely was snowbound. We had no snowblower and it would have been useless

National Guard trucks were needed (huge front end loaders) to clear our streets. No car traffic for a week walked/sledded to the BPM in Sharon (now a Shaws) to get food

I can't prove 48" of new snow but that sounds close to right. Never seen anything like it. The roar if the wind, pink lightning, long duration event that easily crushes (for me) 1997 and Oct 2011 combined

Best snow forts ever. 25'-35' high snow piles in front of our house

I have no pics though

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