The Blizzard of '77 - 40th Anniversary

[BobbyMac]

40 years ago today it started snowing in NWI. 4 days later it stopped. We got over 50" from the blizzard and the following lake effect. Our Brady Bunch tri-level was buried all except my sisters bedroom window and the garage door which my dad kept open because we had a plow on our truck. The pictures I have are mind boggling. You touch the phone lines from the top of the drifts. We lived 1/8 mile off I-94 right at the Michigan line and there were semi's buried in plain view but all you could see was the exhaust coming off their stacks. We had a snowmobile and took food out to the drivers, one guy ran out of fuel and stayed the night in our house till the National Guard started clearing off 94. Did it again a year later in '78 which was for most a bigger storm but we got caught with an additional 2 foot of lake effect that most didn't. Either way, those are things that stick in the mind of an 10/11 year old forever. And most importantly, 1 month of King of the Hill battles on the monstrous snow piles!

Any of you guys old enough and live in the Great Lakes for that one?

 

[Rocket89]

40 years ago today it started snowing in NWI. 4 days later it stopped. We got over 50" from the blizzard and the following lake effect. Our Brady Bunch tri-level was buried all except my sisters bedroom window and the garage door which my dad kept open because we had a plow on our truck. The pictures I have are mind boggling. You touch the phone lines from the top of the drifts. We lived 1/8 mile off I-94 right at the Michigan line and there were semi's buried in plain view but all you could see was the exhaust coming off their stacks. We had a snowmobile and took food out to the drivers, one guy ran out of fuel and stayed the night in our house till the National Guard started clearing off 94. Did it again a year later in '78 which was for most a bigger storm but we got caught with an additional 2 foot of lake effect that most didn't. Either way, those are things that stick in the mind of an 10/11 year old forever. And most importantly, 1 month of King of the Hill battles on the monstrous snow piles!

Any of you guys old enough and live in the Great Lakes for that one?

What's NWI?

This was a few years before I was born but they're running a bunch of anniversary programs here in Western New York. It's definitely one of those moments for my parent's generation that you'll always remember where you were.

 

[woolybug25]

I wasn't there, but I remember hearing the story. It started like this...

One day, on a regular January day in the Midwest. I watched as a young Crusader, OMM and Dshans played kick the can in the street. Then it started snowing and the boy's mothers called them in via their dinner bells. The snow didn't stop for four days....

 

[BobbyMac]

What's NWI?

This was a few years before I was born but they're running a bunch of anniversary programs here in Western New York. It's definitely one of those moments for my parent's generation that you'll always remember where you weresnowed in at.

I took them off a Google images. The first pic was from Tonawanda/Buffalo. I didn't check where each one was from but that's what my personal pics look like.

and I fixed your post. ;-)

 

[BobbyMac]

I wasn't there, but I remember hearing the story. It started like this...

One day, on a regular January day in the Midwest. I watched as a young Crusader, OMM and Dshans played kick the can in the street. Then it started snowing and the boy's mothers called them in via their dinner bells. The snow didn't stop for four days....

Negative Ghostrider... Crusader, like you is part of the Aluminum Era. I never kicked cans with the foggies of the tin can epoch.

 

[Fbolt]

grew up in the area. I remember 1978 - actually, I just recall sledding off the top of the garage.

Remembering the Great Blizzard of 1978 - WDRB Weather Blog

 

[Fbolt]

 

[dad4aa]

grew up in the area. I remember 1978 - actually, I just recall sledding off the top of the garage.

Remembering the Great Blizzard of 1978 - WDRB Weather Blog

This is what I remember as well. I was a freshman in high school. Also digging tunnels through the snow ignoring the dangers of a cave in....not smart.

 

[Ndsoccerguy]

I remember that storm

I remember that storm

2 weeks after the storm we were really tired of being cooped up on campus and wanted to go to Barnaby's for some pizza. Walked from Morrissey to the parking lot and saw--nothing but snow and a few car tops peeking out. Disappointing, long walk back!

 

[Fbolt]

from my perspective, that was an awesome storm. I was 10.

walking out the back door with my sister in our snowmobile suits grabbing armfuls of wood to keep the fire stoked. And getting blown over in the white-out conditions.

 

[connor_in]

I honestly remember the blizzard of 78 more

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blizzard_of_1978

 

[Rocket89]

I honestly remember the blizzard of 78 more

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blizzard_of_1978

Huh, that's interesting. Not much snow fall in that storm but wind and whiteout conditions can be a complete PITA.

 

[BobbyMac]

Huh, that's interesting. Not much snow fall in that storm but wind and whiteout conditions can be a complete PITA.

Guess you weren't in Michiana at the time.

The following table displays selected U.S. snowfall totals during January 25–29, 1978:

State City/location ..... (inches)
OH Dayton ..............*12.2
MI Detroit ............... 8.2
MI Flint ................... 9.9
MI Grand Rapids .... 19.2
MI Houghton Lake . *15.4
IN Indianapolis ....... *15.5
IN South Bend ....... 36.0
MI Lansing ............. 19.3
MI Muskegon ......... 27
MI Traverse City .... 22-28
IL Chicago ............. 12-13

 

[Rocket89]

Guess you weren't in Michiana at the time.

The following table displays selected U.S. snowfall totals during January 25–29, 1978:

State City/location ..... (inches)
OH Dayton ..............*12.2
MI Detroit ............... 8.2
MI Flint ................... 9.9
MI Grand Rapids .... 19.2
MI Houghton Lake . *15.4
IN Indianapolis ....... *15.5
IN South Bend ....... 36.0
MI Lansing ............. 19.3
MI Muskegon ......... 27
MI Traverse City .... 22-28
IL Chicago ............. 12-13

I was speaking more to the average snow fall in all of those areas. A few inches a day isn't that bad. Even 3 feet in South Bend over 5 days isn't awful if the conditions are okay. Which they weren't, which was my point.

The Buffalo area got 5 feet in 36 hours two November's ago, and the Blizzard of '77 dropped over 6 feet in 4 days, but what made it worse was the conditions involved with the snow.

 

[Fbolt]

'77, '78, it doesn't matter. That's a crapload of snow.

 

[kmoose]

Grew up in NE Ohio and remember both years well. Snow forts and, as someone previously mentioned, king of the hill games on the piles of snow from the plows at the YMCA parking lot across the street, and the Hoover Company parking lot behind the houses, that lasted until late March!

 

[dshans]

One day, on a regular January day in the Midwest. I watched as a young Crusader, OMM and Dshans played kick the can in the street. Then it started snowing and the boy's mothers called them in via their dinner bells. The snow didn't stop for four days....

Well, Wooly, if I remember correctly (and that's a BIG IF), I was in Orlando in '77 and Miami in '78.

My mother didn't use a dinner bell. She had a simple house rule: If you're not at the dinner table at 7 PM, "No soup for you!"

I grew up in the years when ten transition from tin to aluminum cans happened. Kick the can wasn't the same – aluminum cans didn't have nearly the resonant tone when kicked along the rutted dirt roads.

The macho move of crushing of a beer can on your forehead lost it's impact as well.

 

[Irish#1]

40 years ago today it started snowing in NWI. 4 days later it stopped. We got over 50" from the blizzard and the following lake effect. Our Brady Bunch tri-level was buried all except my sisters bedroom window and the garage door which my dad kept open because we had a plow on our truck. The pictures I have are mind boggling. You touch the phone lines from the top of the drifts. We lived 1/8 mile off I-94 right at the Michigan line and there were semi's buried in plain view but all you could see was the exhaust coming off their stacks. We had a snowmobile and took food out to the drivers, one guy ran out of fuel and stayed the night in our house till the National Guard started clearing off 94. Did it again a year later in '78 which was for most a bigger storm but we got caught with an additional 2 foot of lake effect that most didn't. Either way, those are things that stick in the mind of an 10/11 year old forever. And most importantly, 1 month of King of the Hill battles on the monstrous snow piles!

Any of you guys old enough and live in the Great Lakes for that one?

Those are some crazy pics. Thanks for sharing. I don't remember the blizzard of '77. Was it more localized? I remember the blizzard of 78 very well. Indy was pretty much shutdown for several days. 78' was not a good year for us as our subdivision got hit with a tornado that summer. My house had some minor damage, but houses just a hundred feet away were ripped to shreds.

 

[ClausentoTate]

Was talking to an '80 grad who remembered the ND-Maryland basketball game and having to walk single-file through trenches of snow to get to the JACC (was it the same building back then?) and then how the infirmary was full of people that were jumping off roofs into snowbanks... that were above bike racks, benches, etc. Good stuff. It was definitely '78.

'07 getting down to -30 was bad enough, I couldn't imagine that much snow.

 

[CrystalHead]

I remember it well. I was 10 and we just moved back to the area from Alabama. Had snow piles that didn't completely melt off until June. Customer of mine said they placed bets on how long they would take to melt. If I remember correctly the weather forecast was for light snow. Caught everyone off guard.

 

[GARYMAK]

I recently went to a NatGeo Live presentation on the life of Inuit (and other Indigenous peoples) around the Arctic Circle and how they manage to survive... it brought back memories of my time in South Bend... That was my senior year and I really don't remember it as anything more than just another bitter winter in South Bend, "same freezing cold, same snow, different day..." South Bend was the coldest place I'd ever been, and my winters there were insufferable. I do remember thinking so many times every winter, "Why did Fr. Sorin stop here? Why not keep going to, oh, say, what's now known as "San Diego"...??? The winter experiences there did teach me a valuable life lesson however: "never go anyplace in winter that gets that cold or snowy." And I never have... well, Alaska, Iceland and Greenland - but I went in summer!