This weekend will mark 46 years since a powerful blizzard dropped up to 2 feet of snow in Southwest Michigan, establishing itself as one of the more memorable weather events in recent history.
The Great Blizzard of 1978 not only brought heavy snow totals – but also hurricane force winds. The storm brought traffic – both in the air and on land – to a complete standstill.
On this day 46 years ago, snowfall records were set during the infamous Blizzard of 1978 which dumped 18.4” inches on the area. It is a calendar day record for Gerald R. Ford International Airport that still stands. Drifts as high as 5 feet clogged Int. 96 between Grand Rapids and Lowell, stranding more than 60 motorists. Schools stayed closed for days. According to Grand Rapids Press archives, by 8:15 a.m. on January 26, Grand Rapids police cruisers were ordered off the roads unless necessary. Ambulances got stuck trying to get patients. At Butterworth Hospital, 140 nurses called to say they couldn’t make it in.
The incredible Blizzard of January 26-27th, 1978 evolved out of a winter that was famous for cold and storms. The Winter of 1977-78 thus far had been one the coldest, since records began, in many areas from the Rockies eastward to the Appalachians. Mammoth blizzards occurred late in January and early February from the Midwest to the East Coast as strong Arctic plunges dove south into the country and met up with the warmer winds from the deep south.
Record 24 hour snowfall totals from the storm included, 16.1 inches at Grand Rapids, 15.4 inches at Houghton Lake and 12.2 at Dayton, OH. Snowfalls for the entire storm (25-27th) included a whopping 30.0 inches at Muskegon (some of which was Lake Michigan enhanced), 19.3 inches at Lansing and 19.2 at Grand Rapids. Snowfalls were less over Southeast Lower Michigan (mainly because of the rain that fell for a period) and included 9.9 inches at Flint and 8.2 inches at Detroit.
I lived in Bay City in 1978 and was working 1st shift. The day before we were in Ann Arbor as our youngest child had to go there for medical treatments almost every month. We left AA around 6:30 PM and back then John McMurry Was a meteorologist for the Detroit radio station WJR he was my go to weather guy back at the time (along with weather radio anyone remember that?) anyway John was all hyped up about this storm. The snow was mostly light until we reached Flint where it really pickup in intensity and by the time we reached Saginaw there was heavy snow falling. I went to bed with the intention of going to work the next day. When the alarm went off at 5 AM I could hear the wind blowing outside and with I looked out he window the snow and blowing snow was so bad I could not see across the road I said this is not good, I went outside just as a heavy thundersnow storm started with the kind of thunder and lightning I have not seen at any time in the last 5 or 6 years. The snow in the driveway was up to my hip so I went back in the house to call in to say I was not coming into work well. The line was busy, and it stayed busy until past 9 AM Well the good news was work was closed that day and it was closed the next day as well. Even on Monday there were a lot of people still snowed in.
Now while for many the 1978 storm is their biggest snowstorm my biggest happened on the same dates 11 years before. In 1967 I was still in High School and in many locations this storm was bigger than the 1978 storm but both were very similar. One big difference was that leading up to the 1967 storm it was warm not cold like it was in 1978. Here are some facts on the 1967 storm.
On Jan. 26-27, 1967, one of the biggest and baldest blizzards struck Michigan. It went down as one of the all-time worst blizzards in Michigan’s history mainly because of the way the weather conditions changed drastically in a short amount of time. In days leading up to the blizzard, some areas featured temperatures in the 50s and 60s.
Snowfall totals
Here’s the snowfall totals measured in some of Michigan’s cities after the 1967 storm:
Kalamazoo … 30 inches
Bay City……….30 inches
Battle Creek … 28.6 inches
Lansing … 24 inches
Saginaw … 23.8 inches
Flint … 22.7 inches
Grand Rapids … 18 inches
Jackson … 16 inches
Muskegon … 11 inches
The 1967 blizzard caught many Michigan residents off guard. In several locations, the temperatures were in the 50s and 60s, and then a couple of days later on Jan. 26 and 27, the blizzard dumped lots of really heavy snow in a relatively short period.
In Lansing, the temperature was 66 degrees on Jan. 24, 1967. Two days later, 24 inches of snow had fell.
In Grand Rapids, the warm temperatures produced records at that time of 62 degrees on Jan. 24, 1967, and 57 degrees on Jan. 25, 1967. Then the snow — a foot and half — fell.
One spot where the warm air kept the blizzard at bay was in Detroit. The Motor City officials had more than 1 inch of rain and 3.5 inches of snow.
In a day when schools seldom closed for snow day we had no school for 7 days. I know there are a lot of people who think of the GHD storm as the big daddy. I can tell you that storm did not even compare to the storms of 1967 and 1978.
THE GRAND RAPIDS CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR JANUARY 24 2025
The H/L was 20/11 there was a trace of snowfall. For January Grand Rapids is now at 20.5” of snowfall that is a departure of +2.9” for the season GRR is now at 51.5” a departure of +5.7” There was 28 % of possible sunshine the highest wind gust was 27 MPH out of the SW. For today the average H/L is 30/17 the record high of 66 was in 1950 the coldest high of 7 was in 1969 the record low of -14 was in 1961 the warmest low of 42 was in 1916. The wettest was 0.72” in 1990 the most snowfall of 8.4” was in 1964 the most snow on the ground was 19” in 1979 and 1963.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND RAPIDS MI
235 AM EST SAT JAN 25 2025
KEY MESSAGES
- MINOR TEMPERATURE SWINGS, EPISODES OF LIGHT SNOW THIS COMING WEEK
- WINDY MONDAY
- LAKE EFFECT SNOW LATE WEDNESDAY
DISCUSSION
ISSUED AT 235 AM EST SAT JAN 25 2025
- MINOR TEMPERATURE SWINGS WITH EPISODES OF SNOW THIS COMING WEEK
AS NOTED PREVIOUSLY, WE ARE LOOKING AT A QUICK SUCCESSION OF AT
LEAST 3 CLIPPERS BETWEEN NOW AND WEDNESDAY. NONE OF THESE WILL BE
NEARLY AS IMPACTFUL AS WHAT WAS EXPERIENCED LAST WEEK. FOR THE
SAKE OF CONTINUITY, WILL REFER TO THESE SYSTEMS THE SAME AS IN THE
PREVIOUS DISCUSSION. LAST WEEK SET A HIGH BAR FOR WINTER HEADLINES,
AND AT THIS TIME, WE DO NOT ANTICIPATE CONDITIONS MEETING THAT
THRESHOLD IN THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE.
STARTING WITH WHAT'S CURRENTLY UNFOLDING (AKA CLIPPER #1), GRR VWP
SHOWS SUBSTANTIAL VEERING THROUGH IN THE SURFACE TO 3 KM LAYER...
INDICATING ROBUST WARM ADVECTION AHEAD OF AN EASTWARD MOVING UPPER
PV MAX THAT WAS PASSING SOUTH OF GREEN BAY EARLY THIS MORNING PER
WATER VAPOR IMAGES. WE SAW AN UPTICK IN REFLECTIVITY APPROACHING 30
DBZ NEAR MKG BUT THIS ALREADY IS STARTING TO DECREASE A BIT. AS
NOTED BEFORE, THIS TEXTBOOK LAKE ENHANCEMENT SETUP WILL BE
FOLLOWED BY A LULL AND THEN A TRANSITION TO INLAND DISPLACED
"PURE" LES (THAT IS, NOT SYNOPTICALLY AIDED LAKE EFFECT SNOW) THIS
AFTERNOON AND EARLY TONIGHT. AS NOTED BEFORE, THERE MAY BE A
LOCALIZED WEST-EAST BAND OF ENHANCED SNOWFALL ALL THE WAY EAST OF
US-131, THANKS TO STRONG FLOW; THIS SHOULD YIELD MINIMAL IMPACTS,
ESPECIALLY GIVEN THAT THIS WILL NOT COINCIDE WITH ANY PEAK TRAVEL
TIMES. SOME GUSTINESS COULD CAUSE SOME VARIABILITY IN VISIBILITIES
HOWEVER.
- WINDY MONDAY
CLIPPER #2'S MAIN IMPACT STILL LOOKS TO BE WINDY CONDITIONS ON
MONDAY. LATEST AVAILABLE EFI/SOT GUIDANCE INDICATES SEASONABLY
STRONG WINDS WITH LOW POTENTIAL TO OVERPERFORM. THIS HAS BEEN
CORROBORATED BY SUCCESSIVE RUNS OF THE ECMWF ENSEMBLE THAT
ADVERTISE MEAN GUSTS IN THE 40 MPH NEIGHBORHOOD, SLIGHTLY GREATER
BY THE LAKESHORE. ALTHOUGH 850 MB FLOW LOOKS PARTICULARLY STRONG
DURING THIS TIME, THIS WILL BE OCCURRING AHEAD OF THE COLD FRONT
IN WARM ADVECTIVE FLOW, WHICH IS NOT CONDUCIVE TO FLUXING THIS
MOMENTUM DOWNWARDS. AS NOTED BEFORE, LOW LEVEL THERMAL PROFILE
WILL ALREADY BE ON THE WARM SIDE, RELATIVELY SPEAKING, AND NOT
SUPPORTIVE OF LAKE ENHANCED SNOW.
- LAKE EFFECT SNOW LATE WEDNESDAY
FINALLY, CLIPPER #3 FOR TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY DOES HAVE MORE
OF A SOUTHERN TRACK AS NOTED PREVIOUSLY. ALTHOUGH THE SURFACE LOW
TRACK PROVIDES THE BEST SNOW POTENTIAL MOSTLY NORTH OF THE CWA (ON
THE ORDER OF PERHAPS A FEW INCHES), WE WILL EVENTUALLY FIND OURSELVES
IN DEEP CYCLONIC FLOW WITH AN UPPER PV MAX PASSING SOUTH OF THE
WESTERN GREAT LAKES. THIS, COMBINED WITH A SUFFICIENTLY COLD LOWER
TROPOSPHERE AND MODERATELY DEEP CONDITIONAL INSTABILITY APPROACHING
10 KFT, WILL FAVOR LES IN THE LATE WEDNESDAY AND PERHAPS VERY EARLY
THURSDAY TIMEFRAME. AN ADVISORY FOR THE EVENING COMMUTE MAY NOT BE
TOTALLY OUT OF THE QUESTION, DEPENDING ON THE INTENSITY AND TIMING
OF THIS FEATURE.
AFTER WEDNESDAY THE REST OF THE WORK WEEK LOOKS A BIT QUIETER.
PRECIPITATION CHANCES RETURN SATURDAY IN THE FORM OF A WINTRY MIX
EXPECTED. HOWEVER, DETAILS THIS FAR OUT WILL REMAIN ELUSIVE FOR A
WHILE.
What a great winter day! I cross country skied this morning and then took the sleds out this afternoon! It doesn’t get better than that! Wow – what a winter!!!!!!!!!!!!,
Thanks Slim! To this day I still can hardly believe the pictures we took from the ‘78 blizzard. About the only time I can remember Chicago Drive being shut down for 3 days. Now we get 2 inches and everyone thinks it’s the “storm of the century” and every flake of snow seems to have a warning or advisory. If you didn’t live through it you have no idea.