35th anniversary of the Blizzard of '78

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Do you remember the Blizzard of ’78?  I have seen pictures from my family.  Some of the most incredible are of the huge drifts along my grandma’s house and of my mom’s car buried in snow.  My grandpa used to tell stories from when he was working for the power company and tried to drive home in the snow.

This year is the 35th anniversary of that massive storm.  This storm started out as 2 systems.  One system was a mass of cold air surging nearly directly south.  The other, a tropical system forming in the south near the Gulf of Mexico.  These 2 storms merged then intensified VERY quickly.  This is what we in the weather world call a “bomb”.  This just means that the central pressure dropped very quickly and made a very intense system.  This system set all time record low pressures along its path.  Incredibly it strengthened so quickly that the pressure fell 40 millibars in 24 hours!

Head over to the WANE Weather Blogs for more information on how this system formed.

The intense storm created 30"-40" of snow across Northern Indiana, with 5-6 foot drifts.  During the height of the storm, snowfall rates of 1"-2" per hour were reported along with sustained winds of 35-45 mph with even greater wind gusts.  With snow that heavy and winds that strong, visibilities were reported to be near 1/16th of a mile at times.  As the system moved out, the temperatures dropped.  Winds were still whipping across the area.  In fact an 82 mph gust was reported at the Cleveland Airport.  On January 30th Fort Wayne set its all time record lowest pressure at 975 mb.

Check out the video on this story for several looks back at the Blizzard of ’78.

Do you have memories from this historic storm?  We’d love to hear about it!  Send any pictures or stories you have to us using Report !t .