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The Blizzard Of 1996 - 30 Years Ago Today Login/Join 
Political Cynic
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I remember that event. I had just purchased my first house and we were snowed in and had no power.

Yes, fun times.
 
Posts: 55133 | Location: Tucson Arizona | Registered: January 16, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
As Extraordinary
as Everyone Else
Picture of smlsig
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I had two great snow events in my adult life, both in VA.

The first was ‘89 when we had back to back snow storms of 23” and 21 inches ( I know that’s not much for some guys) and of course we lost all power. We had a wood stove in our basement and cooked on that for 8 days until power was restored. We invited our neighbors over one night as my wife had made pot roast on the stove. Our neighbors had been eating tuna fish and couldn’t believe the aroma in the house from that roast.
During that time my FIL asked me to plow some of the roads in our subdivision ( which he developed) with the D6….needless to say I was concerned about tearing up the road but he just said to keep the blade up about 6 inches and I’d be fine with I did. VDOT later tried to sue my FIL but we knew some higher up and we told them it was an emergency to be able to get the power company in to our area… That was an open cab so needless to say it was dam cold!

The second event was a few years later and I had my skid steer at the house as the forecast was pretty dire. When the storm let up for the first time I told my wife that I was going to go out and clear the driveway and a couple of neighbors who were elderly and that I’d be back for lunch. Well I got in that nice warm CAT and began clearing not only the driveways near me but the whole road complex. I was about half a mile from my house when my wife called me and asked when I’d be home for DINNER? It was 4:30 and I had been out for about 6 hours. Overall even though I did it just to be a good neighbor I got about 6 or 7 bottles of pretty good whiskey and scotch…


------------------
Eddie

Our Founding Fathers were men who understood that the right thing is not necessarily the written thing. -kkina
 
Posts: 7257 | Location: In transit | Registered: February 19, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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YES I remember this nor’easter like it was yesterday! I was 22 and me and the family were driving from DC, (during shutdown) back home to NJ! Took like 10 hours to get home that was a hell of a blizzard!
 
Posts: 112 | Location: Kyle Texas | Registered: August 23, 2025Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Drill Here, Drill Now
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Blizzard of '78 was memorable for me:
  • woke up to 3 ft of snow and school cancelled for multiple days. It was a winter wonderland and a lot of fun for a kid.
  • the first priority of shoveling was making paths to neighbor's homes. 6 or 7 families had potluck dinners several nights in a row.
  • once they opened the main road, the grocery store opened but nobody in the neighborhood could get out. My family had 2 snowmobilies and my neighbor had a sleigh so our family hooked up the sleigh to Dad's snowmobile and we did a grocery run for us and the neighbors. Normally, driving a snowmobile down the road will get you a ticket so it was a once in a lifetime experience Dad and Mom driving our snowmobiles w/ my brother and I on back right down the main street in a town of 40,000 people past city hall and past the police station.
  • Dad had wheelhorse lawn/garden tractor with a snowblower, but the snow was too deep for the snowblower. After shoveling the two car wide normal residential driveway the snowbanks were 12' high which made for great sledding. I remember "helping" Dad, but I was only 5 so in reality Dad shoveled the driveway.
  • Shoveling out the mailbox was an adventure too as it was buried first by our shoveling and then by the snowplow. Once the roads opened, it was a major exercise to make it so the mailman could lean out the window of USPS' POS 2 wheel drive Jeep and reach the mailbox. There was essentially a vertical wall of snow along the curb with our mailbox sticking out.
  • I distinctly remember the local CBS affiliate coverage as one man walked a mile to the station and provided marathon coverage. The local newspaper coverage occurred 3 days afterwards because they were closed. We had experienced 70 mph winds during the blizzard, and they shared images of entire houses drifted over and businesses where you could see the sign but not the front door.

    Blizzard '96, I was a Purdue student and:
  • As far as snowfall, we were only hit by the edge of the storm. I just Googled it and West Lafayette got 6" or less of snow. Gemini AI said the storm hit Cinci (i.e. about 3.5 hours southeast of Purdue) hard and continued on to Phili.
  • As far as temperatures, it was -10F and Purdue is a windy place so windchill was a MF'er. It was the weekend so I didn't have to walk to class.



    Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

    DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.
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    Posts: 25527 | Location: Northern Suburbs of Houston | Registered: November 14, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
    Get my pies
    outta the oven!

    Picture of PASig
    posted Hide Post
    So my best memory of this storm is that my school, The Culinary Institute of America had to close down for like 2-3 days which was unheard of, they had prided themselves for NEVER closing the campus for weather and had apparently never done so since moving to the campus in Hyde Park, NY in 1972 after they bought the property and left New Haven, CT where they were originally.

    My little Honda CRX was in a parking spot behind my dorm and I dug out, snow up to the roof but could not back out of the spot without sliding on ice and right into the car next to me.

    I enlisted 3 other guys nearby to help me and we literally did a Mentos with my car...picked it up and moved it right out of the spot. Big Grin



     
    Posts: 37102 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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    I remember it. Had to try to get to Dallas for something important that was part of the job. Brutal cold in the DC area, flights were sporadic. Got to DFW and it was 80. Return flights a few days later were just as bad, and I almost had to sleep on the floor with hundreds of others at O'Hare.
     
    Posts: 4040 | Location: Fairfax Co. VA | Registered: August 03, 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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    The only blizzard that slowed me down was the blizzards of 78.

    I remember a few things from it.

    The snow was up to my first floor porch that was many feet above the ground.

    The street was totally drifted over. You could not tell there were cars parked on both side of the street. The snow was higher than the roofs of the cars.

    Someone had cross country skied across the roofs of the cars, they dipped where the snow was down the windshield and hoods.

    It took over a week to clear the roads.

    The coastal force was scary. There was a boulder the size of a small car lifted up 30 ft vertically off a seawall at a beach up by the storm and thrown into the center of a parking lot.


    A lot of houses were turning into matchsticks.

    3,000 cars and 500 trucks were immobilized and abandon on the highway because they were stranded.

    PICS

    https://www.boston.com/news/hi...hotos-blizzard-1978/

    https://www.gettyimages.com/se...ular&license=rf%2Crm
     
    Posts: 5086 | Registered: February 15, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
    Bookers Bourbon
    and a good cigar
    Picture of Johnny 3eagles
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    Central Pennsylvania. We got hammered hard. Had massive snow drifts on our roof. Son couldn't get back to Penn State, but it didn't matter, it was closed.





    Any dog can be a Guide Dog if you don't care where you're going.


    NRA ENDOWMENT LIFE MEMBER
     
    Posts: 8546 | Location: Arkansas  | Registered: November 06, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
    Member
    Picture of cparktd
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    Is that one of the events that resulted in a mini baby boom nine months later?



    Some people spread happiness wherever they go… some whenever they go.
     
    Posts: 4462 | Location: Middle Tennessee | Registered: February 07, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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