For my wife and I the blizzard of 78 was the beginning of the end. We were both born and raised in Toldeo Ohio where we became childhood sweethearts. After getting married we purchased a brand new 14x70 foot HollyPark mobile home (a high end trailer back in the day) it even had a wood burning fireplace! We thought we were the cat's meow. Then came the the blizzard of 78. Due to the high winds and drifting snow residents of the trailer park, including us, were buried in huge snow drifts. We had to wait for the National Guard to dig us out. Unfortunately the National Guard saw the smoke from our fireplace. They decided since we had heat as well as the biggest home in the park, they brought all the families with small children and small animals to our house. While we can now appreciate it now as being the right thing to do... for us it was 4 long days and nights from hell. Our beautiful home was turned into a disaster area. Baby and dog feces as well as vomit over every square foot of our new carpeting not to mention the bathroom needed to be gutted. NET: In June of that very same year... we both quit our jobs, sold almost everything we had, jumped into a Ryder rental truck and drove to Arizona. Why Arizona? Only because according to our outrageously expensive 1972 Complete 24 Volume Hardcover Book Set of Encyclopedia Britannica (i.e., the equivalent of the Google or the internet for that time period) said Arizona averaged more sunshine per year than any other state)... and we never looked back 😁
We were in Fremont OH in tech School. It was a warm day, it was pouring rain before the temperature dropped. We planned to run to the store for beer, the plan was to drink beer and play cards, we knew school, and work were canceled for awhile. It was around the time that the sun set, the pouring rain turned to dumping snow. The temp dropped really fast. Everything became coated with thick ice, the grass, the roads, sidewalks, cars. Every branch and twig had a thick coat of ice. By the time we got back from the store there were drifts building on the road with the ice underneath. When did the wind start, there were no drifts when we left, we only went about a half mile? We cheered when we made it back, the heavy old car with a push button shift made it through the drifts. The switch from rain to blizzard was WTH happened, this was a different kind of storm. The Ohio Turnpike was about 3 miles away it became undriveable, then around 9 o'clock the news reported that local farmers who had snowmobiles were already out to the turnpike to transport stranded people to schools that were designated shelters. Hours ago it was warm and raining, then the next thing you know there was an army of farmers riding out into a blizzard to save lives. The turnpike had thousands of people stranded on it, Gas stations stayed open for the farmers to refuel. It was normal for farmers to help people stuck in the snow in Ohio, some had plows on the back of their tractors, and would help people plow out small roads. But this time they were riding from long distances to save people, there was no time to think, so many people needed rescued. If it hadn't changed so fast maybe people wouldn't have been on the turnpike, maybe they were no motel vacancies. The Farmers were the heroes that night and that week. I remember an 18 wheeler pulled over, (I think in Wisconsin) and a week later someone spotted the antenna attached to his side mirror sticking out of a snowdrift. He had stayed in his truck melting snow for water to drink. I will never forget the farmers who worked for free, for days to save people. May God bless them. That's how I remember it.
I worked at what then was an Arco gas station on the corner of Rt. 91 and Miles in Moreland Hills. The night of the blizzard my boss (Dick Elliot) asked me if I could get back to the station and get our tow truck as I lived nearby then. It was a 1-ton GMC 4WD wrecker with a twin-boom Holmes 480. He told me to go and pick-up another guy (Steve) and told me that he would give us both 25% of any gross revenue over $500 plus our regular hourly pay. I was dressed in my Arctic Cat snowmobile suit. It was really cold out with the wind gusting up to 60 mph blowing the snow sideways. We found a few cars to tow including a Beachwood police cruiser, and that officer told us to help-out their city crews over at Green Rd and Chagrin Blvd. Traffic on Green Rd was lined-up like rush hour in 3 feet of snow right in-front of Highland Park golf course. The city crews would shovel-out the front of another car and we would quick tow it to a nearby factory parking lot they had cleared and go back for another. When we got there about Midnight there were several other tow trucks already working but by 4:00 AM it was just us and one other tow truck. We didn't quit until 7:00 AM. By then we had cleared all the cars on Green Rd from Chagrin Blvd down to the south end of the industrial park. An officer working with us gave us a tow sheet and we went over to Beachwood city hall and they cut us a check. It is still hard to believe but we grossed $2750 that night between 9 PM and 7 AM. Both Steve and I made out like bandits. We made over $600 each including our hourly pay. I have seen some worse snow storms since then like 5 feet of snow overnight in St .Regis, MT back in the winter of 1980-81 but the 1978 Cleveland Great Blizzard was one of the worst I have worked in.
I was in South Euclid and driving down Mayfield a week later felt like another world. Only 2 lanes and 15 foot snow piles all the way down the road. It was Erie. But Brush high was closed and that was awesome!
I was 6 years old and lived in Brunswick. I remember the snow drifts 10 feet up on our one-story home. My Mom had a new born (my little sister) and my Dad was out of the country for 3 months working in Italy. We moved to Texas in 1980, so needless to say, I've never experienced anything like that since. Now I deal with the occasional hurricane.
Oh, Candy, I think I would prefer the hurricanes over winter storms like this one. 🙂 Two years ago, when it got down to... What was it, 20 degrees? ... and Texans though it was a natural disaster; How did you keep from laughing at them for thinking it was so terrible?
I was 14 lived in zanesville,i remember the guard had to blow ice at y bridge dam as it was flooding from the melt..we kids went down on muskingum ave at river at watched ice chunks size of small cars go by..best winter ever..no school for about 2 weeks
I was in 5th grade at the time. We lived out in farm country east of Toledo in a one story ranch. By the time the storm ended, the snow had drifted all the way up to our roof, just like that house at the end of the video. The local farmers used their huge 4-wheel drive John Deere tractors to help clear the roads. It was insane. It’s why I moved to the south as an adult!!
We lived in rural central Ohio when this monster hit. I was 12. Its the only time I've looked out the window and could not see more than a few feet due to the blowing snow. Our barn with 8 horses was only about 80 feet away yet my mother and older sister could not reach it and had to turn back. The next day the barn was full of snow where the 60mph winds drove it in through the cracks. Luckily we did not lose our electric or we would have been in a world of hurt. I've never seen a storm even half as bad since.
Lived in Newbury Ohio " Geauga County " out in the country .Remember the news coming over the radio saying stay indoor Do not go out in this storm ...We ran late on our electric bill and The electric company guy came to cut or power ,We heated with fuel oil and ran out of oil .no money to get anymore .us kids were huddled up in front of the oven in the kitchen trying to stay warm ..Electric man seen us in front of the oven and seen us freezing ,Dad told him that we were out of oil and the oven was our. Only source of heat ..The electric. Man said " I'm not going to cut your electric ..I'm not going to read in the news paper that a family froze to death because I cut the power " he went on his way ..later that day ,My Oldest brother drove 18 wheeler and he came home and walked in the house and asked Dad ,Why is it so cold in here ? Dad said we ran out of oil ..My brother asked Dad ,Will that heater burn Diesel fuel ? Dad said ya ,it just burns sootier than kerosene . My brother and my dad went out to my Brother's Rig and siphoned a bunch of Diesel out of the tanks ..my brother than called our friend down the road and asked him if he could bring his Rig to out house and siphon some. Fuel out of his tanks too ...By the time they were. Done we had 250 gallons of oil .Fired the heater up and stayed toasty warm ..good ole memories
I was 18 yrs old when this storm hit us. It went fast let me tell you it seem like it wasn’t that many yrs ago. I must say it was a good time in this country at that time. How things have changed to all this anger in this country now. Things were just so simple compared to now. Everyone is just out for themselves now.
I was 12 and remember this REAL well. When my mother went to open up our front door (of the then, Euclid projects E. 200th street) there was another door, of PURE snow. It looked like she never even opened the door.
I just turned 15 and the best part was No School! :D I remember watching the storm all day, listening to the reports on the radio & TV. It was kinda exciting when you were a teen. And did I mention, No School?! lol
I will NEVER forget this storm. I was stuck away from home for three days and didn't find my shutters from the house until Spring. By April 1st of 1979 I was in Los Angeles and have been in California since. I've never regretted the move and when I get thoughts of leaving, I just remember the Great Blizzard of 1978.
I was 14. And it was NASTY! Never had any weather event since that time that has even come close to the severity of this blizzard. Same with the winter before when it stayed below freezing for a month!
I was almost twenty years old and eight months pregnant with my first child. My husband and I worried If I were to go into labor our daughter would be born at home. We lived near Miamisburg, Ohio.
We lived in Madison, I was eleven years old. I remember my father made several trips back and forth from home to the elementary and middle schools picking up the neighborhood children whose parents couldn’t get them for whatever reason as the buses weren’t running. I was in the last load terrified We wouldn’t make it home.
I was 12 and my dad shoved coal that day for 12 hrs to keep the boilers at the greenhouse running so the pipes wouldn't freeze up at otto greenhouse and kill the plants me and my brother and sister was home with my mom and my older sister walk down to the little store for us to get bologna and bread and something to drink so we could it she and my brother ended up fallen on the road because the snow in ice on the roads and that when they seen people stranded in there cars it was a really bad snow storm I will never for get
Do I remember this accurately? I was 14 and had a Cleveland Plain Dealer paper route in South Euclid and went out that morning to deliver papers and it was relatively warm (maybe in the 40's or 50s) but by the time I got home an hour later the wind was whipping and it was starting to snow...and then we didn't have school for a week.
I was 14 when this storm hit. I lived in Canton, Ohio. Everything was closed and even the post office couldn't deliver mail but us paper boys had to trudge out in that weather to deliver papers because god knows the world would come to a end if people couldn't read their garbage Canton Repository. And all we got for that was a stupid letter and a silly wool hat. And the sad thing is now we have adults delivering papers in cars yet if it's to cold or get a few inches of snow your paper is delayed or you just get it at all. A lot has changed between 1978 and 2023.
I worked that day in University Circle and Cleveland Heights. Driving around was easy because there wasn’t much snow but a lot of wind. Went home early though.
In Indiana we had 18+ inches o night I had to removestorm door window then take a dustpan and remove snow so I could open door!😊...We couldn't go anyplace 3 or 4 days!!!.
I'm from this area, but was living at this time in Boston, Ma....where around February 5th or 6th this blizzard made it's way up to the Northeast area. We were buried in snow drifts for about 5 days. Folks who owned the corner stores, jacked their prices up to gouge people for bread, milk, ect.
the great new England blizzard of Feb 5-6th was a separate weather system from the January 26th event. the January 26 storm was a midwest and great lakes storm which dissipated 2 days later over Quebec. however the storm you are talking about dumped more snow and did more damage.
We were in Stow, OH, and the snow drifts reached the second level of our home. I was 12 and dug out a really impressive snow cave inside the drifts. It was pretty large and we squeezed about five kids in there to the point that it actually got too warm inside.
I'm from Cincinnati and we have the ice winter of 77. My senior year of high school, which was brutal and then I was a commuter to the university of cincinnand seventy eight and I never got stuck once.
I am looking for a man named Chuck. He went to Tinora, High School. Him and his brother were staying with me and my children across from the airport on Rt. 15, he went to school with my oldest son Kelley Fairchild Jr.
I was only a year old at the time, so I don't remember this one. According to my dad, the Ohio River was so frozen over that people were walking across it to go to West Virginia.
I was living in Washington. D.C. at the time. I am a native of New England. D.C. got 7 in. of snow & really, the people there thought the world was going to end, & were panic stricken. I couldn't stop laughing....
I remember Tony Sands WLWT Channel 5.,He said Holy Mackerel the Baromen fell out of the Bottom he said were going to have blizzard that was the first time we experience a blizzard I got up to go to work my car was behind my wife car .my tires was frozen on the driveway I had a 73 Ford Gran Torino. My Wife had a Small Honda civic we both call off work. We lived on a hill so. I started my car and let it warm up the heat from the motor and exhaust pipe.melted the ice this how smart I was We took a trip down the hill I put my car in low gear, well I was sliding but fortunately I have another lose control my car had a hard part was getting the deck up the hill and the guy that jeep was behind me and that he's at the you need to push I said yes and he pushed me at the driveway and I stayed home next day I went to work I was working in our power plant. I was suppose to get off at 3:30 my foreman ask me could I stay and help to empty a Coal car We had Torches on the back that car and try to melt the ice so the coal can fell into the hoped. Finally around 10pm I broke the Coal loose and I was frozen it was 50 below Zero. I helped to keep the boiler going They told me the pressure was getting I chip away at the coal until it was coming out of the bottom of that coal car. I don't care how cold it was I had to get that coal loose. End of a very boring story.
southern Ontario was also rocked by this storm. That winter of 78 (Dec 77 to March 78) was the 2nd coldest since 1904 in southern Ontario. Only the winter of 2013/2014 was slightly colder in terms of temperature, but nowhere near as much snow or stormy weather.
OMG I live in Bellefoainte Ohio and there is going to be 2 snow storms one in Sunday which is tomorrow and on Tuesday and said that the snow is going to be 2" or 3"and im super scared cause its my first snow storm in my whole entire life
I was born and raised in Atlanta GA in 1984 and i thought the Storm of the Century in 1993 was bad. My dad was born and raised in Ohio and he told me to check this out and all the videos I watch of this storm blow my mind wow.
If you want another good memory of the Great Blizzard in Cleveland in 1978 here is a 10-minute tape of the WJKW Channel 8 newscast that evening. Check-out Jeff Maynard standing over I-77 wearing earmuffs. I wonder if his ears ever recovered. I am afraid that the video quality isn't too great. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-n6Qa7YIszpg.html
My mom was just telling me about this. She was in elementary school and says she had to get a packet for schoolwork every Friday and was out of school for about a month or so. Said she played with the snow, though.
My Dad and Grandpa owned neighboring bars and a motel that sat behind them, they said there were a couple hundred people that ended up staying with them and they were all really drunk for the better part of 4 or 5 days..i've heard some crazy stories from that week from them but nothing where they helped people other than keeping them drunk..lol btw, i'm 39 and don't drink so i would have been miserable.
we just got married in 78 23 yrs old,, we seen the snow go past the roof of the house cold yes we were just married, the roads were no where to bee driven,, my bros n law a cop was on snow mobiles
To the noisy spectator, Wiki says: The Standard atmospheric pressure is 14.696psi, or 1013.25mb, 29.92inHg. Not sure if standard means average. But I think 1013.25mb is about average. It also says: one cm square (0.16 inches square) at sea level would have I.3Kilograms, 2.3lbs of atmosphere above it. Recorded record highs = close to 1085mb. Recorded record lows = 870mb. Yes 1013.25mb is the stated average. So at average sea level per inch there would be 14.7psi (6.7kg) (wiki). At about 5,000meters (about 15,000ft) just above the European Alps the pressure would be about 50% (So 7.35lbs (3.35kg)). At 8848ms at the top of Mount Everest it would be about 30KPa, 300mbs (about 1/3 sea level psi) about 2.4psi. At 10,000meters about 1/5 atmospheric pressure. So 200mbs, 1.2lbs. Your location will make a difference as will the season. As there is lower stratopause/mesopause at the poles and the further you are from the equator. Hope that helps. I don't know how much sense this makes. But I think in decades gone by the aim was to set the measuring instruments to a reference to one (or 100%) at sea level. But as the sea is up and down and the higher the location (altitude) requires a lower reading (measure). The reading there for starts at One represting a 100% about. So Kilopascals are ten times millobars and set to that 100%. So sea level average is about 100KPa or a 1000mbs. But as sea level can it self drop below the average sea level or places inland such as the salton sea or dead sea can be lower than sea level. There for the scale needs to go higher than 100 to allow for variations below sea level. So the average is stated as 101KPa (1013mbs). That may also account for the elipsoid shape of earth. So the precise normal range depends on location. Florida is going to be different to Kansas, NY State and Maine. Mt McKinly very different to Colorado high and Lake Mead and death Valley. So for precise you need to look at your own location. It's precise altitude and distance from the elipsoid buldge of earth around the equator. But if you are by the beach. Then on average it will be about 1000mbs, or 100KPa or 14.7psi.
In the old video, I think he quoted wrong when he said 28.28inches was lower in fact than many hurricanes. It may be lower than a few F1 hurricanes. But the more powerful hurricanes can be lower.
WHOA, Whoa, hold on. My knowledge of meteorology is not much more than contemporary, and my ability to do conversion math in my head is not so good. Can we just limit measurements to psi; Pounds Per Square Inch, referring to how much pressure the atmosphere is exerting on one square inch of the surface? But, specifically, Northeast Ohio. Would you mind restating that?
To the noisy spectator Cleveland NE Ohio by the lake is in the lowest area with in Ohio State at only 568ft above average sea level. The whole lake is 568ft. Lakes are often low areas. So the weight in psi will be a little lower there than at sea level. But only a little. So the weight of the atmosphere would be just a little less than 14.7Ibs. A dollar piece is 26.5mm size where as an inch is 25.4mm. So the USA dollar piece (coin) is just 1.1mm larger than an Inch. But it is round and not square. So its surface area is the same as one square inch. So at sea level there would be about 14.7lbs pushing down on it. By NE Ohio Lake there would be about 17lbs. In death valley at 282ft at the lowest part the force upon the same coin would be about 15 to 16lbs. At the top of everest 2.4lbs. But put it on the scales and it weighs just under an ounce (26.73gs). Of course that may sound a lot (14.7lbs) but air is a gas and will move quicker than water. So raising an up turned hand with that 14.7lbs on hardly feels like 14.7lbs as it moves out of the way very quickly.
I was 16 and don't remember a goddamn bit of it. We always shoveled snow in Lakewood for money until we had enough for a bag of weed and a concert ticket, so that's likely what happened. I didn't buy a car until I was 17. This is a conundrum to me.
When your around that age pretty much nothing bothers you. I was 18 and don’t remember to much about it. It seem like we were always getting snow at that time. I probably was smoking some weed myself that day would not surprise me at all.
Waheguru there goes another declination to a possible job offer because I do not know how to appreciate snow having lived in buffalo, wny, not worth even a million dollars income to suffer snow weather hardships and misery of high utility bills and home bound life outside or dangerous driving to work.
I was stuck at Logan airport. I had gone in to get my brother who was home on leave. I had a 1970 camaro. We made it out of the airport and got stuck on the on-ramp to Route 1 North. We ended up walking back to the airport and spending another night there until they could clear the roads once that happened it was a case of trying to find the 1970 Camaro and get it going again. It was horrific
