Roger Smith Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Well, fifty years ago tonight the Great Lakes region was being pounded by an intense winter storm that brought record snowfalls after some record high temperatures. Link to two articles: http://www.weather.gov/lot/67blizzard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Chicago_blizzard My own recollections (from a town just west of Toronto, namely Georgetown, ON where I was a high school senior that winter). -- I was recording the weather daily at my home in those days. What I recall is that the weather was very mild from the 23rd to the 25th, it was 54 deg (F) on the 23rd and 58 on the 25th (61 downtown Toronto which edged out the 1950 record for January at that time; since broken by the 19 C reading in 2005). Then on the 26th, also a Thursday as the calendar was identical to this year, a mix of ice pellets and snow began, eventually I recorded about 2" of melted and 10" of snow on the ground by the 27th, so probably about an inch of freezing rain and ice pellets. Canada did not use the metric system until the mid-1970s so I was recording in "imperial" measures. I do recall one big crack of thunder while I was writing my SATs in the high school cafeteria. And I vaguely recall news coverage of how big the snowstorm had been further west (and north). Just looking in Canadian records, I find that London (YXU) reported 22.8 mm of rain (or ice pellets) and 18.0 cm of snow -- this was measured in Imperial too but the data have been converted to metric, so that was about 0.9 in of rain and 7" of snow. Further north at Wiarton (YVV) the storm was all snow and dropped 34.5 cm (about 13.7") with a melted equivalent of 31 mm. That all happened on the 27th. Further east at Muskoka (YQA) it was about 22 cm of snow and a small amount of freezing rain (1.3 mm). And north at Sudbury (YSB) it was 14.8 cm including a small amount on the 28th. The dates (26th-27th) became famous for big storms. In 1971 there was a huge lake effect blizzard in central Ontario lasting through these dates and probably almost a week afterwards, blocking roads around southern Georgian Bay and stranding many people at ski resorts in that area. Then of course in 1978 there was the Blizzard of 78 storm or the Triple Phaser, superbomb, call it what you wish, that had the record low pressure of 954 mbs near Sarnia-Port Huron, and 100 mph wind gusts around London as well as celebrated heavy snowfalls in states west of its track (and into northern Ontario). Once again, I was in the Toronto area during that storm, it was mostly a wind and temperature drop event with a little snow but as I was working in a weather office that day I got to draw the map of the storm from live data. It became an object of extreme shock to those who saw it. The existing weather models in 1978 managed to forecast a rapidly deepening cyclone so it was not a total surprise, but I think the northward component and the actual central pressure were a bit of a surprise (something like a 960 mb low near central Lake Ontario had been projected). The screaming cold south wind was something that might only have happened once or twice a century in the region (I suspect maybe Jan 31, 1843 for example). So, what do you recall or know about these storms? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Snow maps from the 1967 and 1978 storms. I've always been amazed at the sharp cutoff between Chicago and Rockford in 1967. FYI, lake effect snow occurred beyond these dates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 2 hours ago, Hoosier said: Snow maps from the 1967 and 1978 storms. I've always been amazed at the sharp cutoff between Chicago and Rockford in 1967. FYI, lake effect snow occurred beyond these dates. I don't think Jan 67 had much LES following it? What amazes me is the insane QPF with Jan 67 which basically had 10-1 ratios here with 28.6" inches of snow and 2.86" QPF. Then to have both storms drop their biggest load on the same day here making for the #1 ( 67 ) and #2 biggest storms to ever hit this place. Wish i had been here for both. Locals here are split on which had the bigger impact here. 67 was 28.6" vs 25.1" for 78. One of those i guess you had to be here to judge for yourself. Think about this.. Gull Lake ( 67 jackpot..10 minutes from here ) got 30.2" and my understanding is there was no help from the lake there. That says to me Chicago can easily outdo it thanks to location by the lake. So yeah i think the chances are very high the Chicago record falls. Just a matter of when? Amazes me it hasn't already happened! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buckeye Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 1 hour ago, Harry said: I don't think Jan 67 had much LES following it? What amazes me is the insane QPF with Jan 67 which basically had 10-1 ratios here with 28.6" inches of snow and 2.86" QPF. Then to have both storms drop their biggest load on the same day here making for the #1 ( 67 ) and #2 biggest storms to ever hit this place. Wish i had been here for both. Locals here are split on which had the bigger impact here. 67 was 28.6" vs 25.1" for 78. One of those i guess you had to be here to judge for yourself. Think about this.. Gull Lake ( 67 jackpot..10 minutes from here ) got 30.2" and my understanding is there was no help from the lake there. That says to me Chicago can easily outdo it thanks to location by the lake. So yeah i think the chances are very high the Chicago record falls. Just a matter of when? Amazes me it hasn't already happened! That is crazy about the dates being the same. CMH only ended up with about 7" officially from '78, but it's amazing how snow amounts can take a back seat to the combination of wind and brutal cold when those two categories hit extreme levels. '78 shut down central OH for a solid week, cost lives and wiped out livestock. Compare that to March '08 where we had 22" on a Friday/Saturday and pretty much everything was moving again on Monday...(even though it was more than cold enough afterwards to keep any melting from occurring). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Smith Posted January 27, 2017 Author Share Posted January 27, 2017 As I am updating the snowfall contest amounts for 26th, it gives me a chance to check all regional stations for snowfall records on the 26th. These are daily records for various stations for the 26th (and a few on 27th added). LAN daily prc max is 1.30" from 1978 and FWA is 1.14" from 1967 while SBN had 2.12" in 1967. (only mentioning cases where PRC was the other year from the snowfall record). SNOWFALL DAILY RECORDS: 1978: MKG 21.7" ... APN 16.3" ... GRR 16.1" ... SBN 15.6" ... HTL 15.4" ... MQT 11.1" ... IND 10.3" ... MKE 8.3" ... DTW 7.8" ... FWA 4.7" (no further records on 27th) 1967: ORD 16.4" ... LAN 15.4" ... FNT 14.5" ... PIA 7.6" 1967 _ 27th ... ORD 6.6" (total 23.0") ... GRR 12.2" ... LAN 8.6" (total 24.0") ... FNT 8.2" (total 22.7") 26th __ (no records listed for CLE, TOL or MLI and the CMH record was 5.0" 1988, not sure if that means smaller amounts in 1967/78? ... RFD was 7.5" in 1941 so neither year produced a record ... DSM 13.7" from 1996, MSN 12.6" from 1996, LSE 12.0" from 1996 and GRB 11.3" from 1996 ... MSP 3.3" in 1910 ... DLH 18.2" in 2004 ... SPI 3.5" in 1997 but daily prc record was 1.31" in 1967, STL 2.6" in 1961 and daily prc record from 1967 was 2.13" while EVV had 3.0" in 1961 ... PAH 2.0" in 1969 ... SDF 4.6" in 1925. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueWaves Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 12 hours ago, Hoosier said: Snow maps from the 1967 and 1978 storms. I've always been amazed at the sharp cutoff between Chicago and Rockford in 1967. FYI, lake effect snow occurred beyond these dates. This captures at least some of the follow-on LES (thru 1/28/78) over SWMI for the 2nd Mega-storm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 9 hours ago, Harry said: I don't think Jan 67 had much LES following it? What amazes me is the insane QPF with Jan 67 which basically had 10-1 ratios here with 28.6" inches of snow and 2.86" QPF. Then to have both storms drop their biggest load on the same day here making for the #1 ( 67 ) and #2 biggest storms to ever hit this place. Wish i had been here for both. Locals here are split on which had the bigger impact here. 67 was 28.6" vs 25.1" for 78. One of those i guess you had to be here to judge for yourself. Think about this.. Gull Lake ( 67 jackpot..10 minutes from here ) got 30.2" and my understanding is there was no help from the lake there. That says to me Chicago can easily outdo it thanks to location by the lake. So yeah i think the chances are very high the Chicago record falls. Just a matter of when? Amazes me it hasn't already happened! 78 seems like it had more LES. In 67 it looks like there was still some going on the 29th, especially off Erie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nokywx Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 I feel like '67 is a bit underrated. Growing up, all you ever heard about was '78, and it definitely is the king. I guess because it was just so extreme, and unprecedented in terms of strength. But the precip that '67 put out is really remarkable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone77 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 One interesting thing about the '67 event is that there was a tornado outbreak a few days before over eastern Iowa/Missouri/Illinois/southern Wisconsin. Extremely unusual for January. The outbreak of tornadoes in this area would have been significant for the warm season, let alone in Jan. http://www.weather.gov/dvn/01241967_tornadooutbreak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 25 minutes ago, cyclone77 said: One interesting thing about the '67 event is that there was a tornado outbreak a few days before over eastern Iowa/Missouri/Illinois/southern Wisconsin. Extremely unusual for January. The outbreak of tornadoes in this area would have been significant for the warm season, let alone in Jan. http://www.weather.gov/dvn/01241967_tornadooutbreak 1967 as a whole had some notable/interesting events. In addition to what's been mentioned, there was the outbreak on April 21. Then in December not one, but two tornado outbreaks in the region. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vortex Posted January 28, 2017 Share Posted January 28, 2017 18 hours ago, Hoosier said: 1967 as a whole had some notable/interesting events. In addition to what's been mentioned, there was the outbreak on April 21. Then in December not one, but two tornado outbreaks in the region. Chicago also received another 8" of snow a week after the blizzard. Interesting reading the forecasts just a day before the storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indystorm Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 This event is still the benchmark for me personally as I lived in Hobart IN in northern Lake County in high school at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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