Blizzards: Show Me Where Global Warming Is Touching You

MichelleNotThatOne mentioned that yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Great Blizzard of 1978. I liked this part (paraphrased):

Student apartment management to tenants: “God will take care of the snow.”

Student tenants to management: “Then God will also pay the rent.”

Oddly enough precisely 11 years earlier, on January 26-27 1967, another blizzard of monstrous proportions blew through pretty much the same path:

The days prior to January 26 and 27, 1967 were unseasonably warm with temperatures in the 50s and 60s in some parts of Michigan. Then suddenly winter temperatures returned and with them came several feet of snow. An eight-mile long traffic backup occurred between Grand Rapids and Jackson with drivers abandoning their cars and walking to a nearby farmhouse to spend the night. Kalamazoo took the brunt of the storm with 30 inches of snow falling. Eyewitnesses say the storm brought the state to standstill for two days. Dairy farmers had to dump milk that couldn’t be delivered and state troopers relied on the National Guard for transportation through the deep snow to emergency calls.

I remember it well as I was in high school and snow days, even in the land of notorious “lake effect” snow were very few and far between.  It was a glorious time to be very young.

Eleven years later I was out of grad-school and working at my first “real” job when the Great Blizzard of ‘78 descended. If getting a snow day while in school was cool, getting one (two, actually) when you’re working was awesome. In my area (West Michigan) the blizzard began the evening of the 26th and continued through the morning of the 27th. And  while there was quite a bit of snow it was the near-hurricane force winds and resulting stories-high drifts that caused the most havoc.

According to The National Weather Service, The Blizzard of ‘78 was the worst winter storm to hit Michigan since record keeping began. Again falling on January 26 and 27, the lower peninsula was hit with 10 to 30 inches of snow depending on location.

Wind gusts were between 50 and 70 mph and windchills were as cold as 30 below. The severe blizzard caused whiteouts and zero visibility for hours.

The Blizzard of 1978 ranks as the #1 snowstorm ever for Grand Rapids and much of Lower Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. The barometer reading of 28.28″ in Cleveland still ranks as the lowest non-hurricane barometer reading in U.S. history. ..Several inches of snow that were already on ground in many areas prior to the storm compounded the blowing snow. As the storm passed over Mt. Clemens, MI, the atmospheric pressure fell to the third lowest ever recorded in the United States outside of a tropical storm.

Still, it was a glorious time to be young.

If you weren’t born yet of course you don’t remember. But odds are good if you didn’t live in the effected area you probably don’t remember them either. That’s because there were no all weather/news channels to cover the event 24/7. That’s right: no CNN (1980) and no Weather Channel (1982). How great was that!? Your local weather man (they were all men then)  and newscasters were your only lifeline to critical weather information.

By the time the Great East Coast Blizzard of 2016 came along every citizen everywhere was barraged with round the clock coverage of the Great Snowpocalypse whether you were effected by it or not because…Washington D.C.!

And yet we can’t get so much as a nod from the 24/7 news Leviathans about the emerging Deep State-gate scandal.

Yes, it was a great time to be young, back before 24/7 fake news, Deep State, Global Warming and #MeToo.

“Show me on the polar bear where global warming is touching you.”