Top winter storms

 

I have lived in 3 locations in my life time (Alpena, Michigan. Bay City, Michigan and Grand Rapids, Michigan). In my very early life time I live in Alpena, Michigan I was very young and of course I did not keep any kind of records from back then. We moved to Bay City Michigan in the spring of 1960 and that September 1st the city was hit with a major Derecho and the thunderstorm had 80+ MPH winds. There were so many trees down all around town that it was almost impossible to get around town. Much of the town was without power for more than a week and the clean up took much longer. School started a week later then planned due to trees and power lines still down. It was that storm that got me interested in my life long hobby of weather related events. Now on the topic of some of my most (biggest) winter time events. I have broken the list down between Bay City and Grand Rapids,

BAY CITY

 

7. April 3 1975 snow storm that dropped 16″ of snow with high winds and much thunder snow. This storm was very intense. This snow fell mostly from around 10 PM on the 2nd to about 2 AM on the 3rd I
6. in 6th place is the January 13 1979 storm that storm dropped 18″ of snow on Bay City with high winds. After this storm the rest of January and February were very cold.
5. in 5th place on my list is February 24 1965 this storm also had high NE winds and a lot of 10 foot drifts. This storm dumped just over 18” in Bay City.
4. Next on the list is the March 17, 1973 St Paddys day storm that storm also had NE winds in the 55 to 60 MPH range with 22″ of snow along with thunder snow but this time the wind blew the water of Saginaw Bay up on the shore and into the Saginaw river and into town so we had both 20+ inches of snow and a flood at the same time. People living along the Bay shore had to be evacuated as water rose up and into their houses.
3. The March 2-3 1976 ice storm. This ice storm is the bench mark of ice storms in my life time. This storm had 5” of snow then 1.5” of ice. The storm had winds NE winds in the 35 MPH range with heavy snow this heavy freezing rain along with thunder and lightning. The ice knocked down many trees and power wires. The ice was 1.5” thick and you could (try) and walk on top of the 15” of snow on the ground. I still can hear in my mind the sound of the trees falling that night.
I am going to put storms 1 and 2 together as they make up the bench mark of winter storms in my live time. I am not sure if we will ever have a repeat of either storm but if we do that storms will become your new bench mark of winter storms.
2. January 26 1978. Almost the same as the 1967 (see storm #1) storm very high winds in the 55 MPH range (we lived less than 6 blocks from Saginaw Bay) much thunder and lightning. I was married and working at this time and I did not have work for 2 days. yet another odd thing about the two storms is that they both started late on a Wednesday into Thursday. These two storms are my bench mark for winter storms
1. January 26, 1967 25″ officially but could have been more. Had 20 foot drifts with 50 to 60 MPH NE winds. The front door was drifted shut, But side door of the house and for about 20 feet from the house there was less than 1 inch of snow. Along with the very high winds the storm had much thunder and lightning. I was in High School at that time as we did not have school for over a week and in fact we were snowed in for 4 days and we lived in town.Grand Rapids
I moved to Grand Rapids in April of 1984. While Grand Rapids averages much more snow per winter season then Bay City the storms that have occurred here are of a different nature then the one in Bay City. Being near the Saginaw Bay, Bay City’s storms are more of like a Northeaster in nature while that is not the case here in Grand Rapids.

GRAND RAPIDS

4. The December 23 to 31st 2001 lake effect event when Grand Rapids received snow every day from the 23rd to the 31st The most snow fell right over the Christmas period with 6.7” falling on Christmas 11.9” on the 26th and 9.6” on the 27th the total for the 9 day event was 51.6”
3. on January 22nd Grand Rapids at the airport received 12.8” in a 3hr time period. Here at my house I received 18” on that same night. This came with high winds and a lot of drifting. Visibilities were near zero. I worked 3rd shift at that time in Coopersville and while I started out for work that night I came back home after traveling about 3 miles on I 96. In my 20 years working 3rd shift that was the only time I did not go to work due to a snow storm.
2. February 1-2 2011 this had became known as the GHD storm the two day total at GRR was a reported 17.2” and here at my house I reported 19” while not a lot of wind the snow was heavy enough that we could not get our cars out to the main road and thus my son was not able to go to work for 2 days.
1. I feel that the biggest storm since I moved to Grand Rapids was the January 2-6 1999 storm. That storm dropped a reported total of 26.8” at GRR and 33.5” here at my house. The storm had heavy snow and high winds and whiteouts. I did go to work during that storm but on one of the mornings I stayed and had breakfast at the Coopersville Burger King before heading home after it became light out due to the whiteout conditions that morning.

Now it is ever ones turn to list their top snow storms of their life time. And in Mookies case he/she can list the all time heat waves and ect.

I will not have the internet next Saturday but for Micheal I have a post ready to go.

As We are down in south Florida here are a couple of pictures on US 1 outside of the motel one looking south and one looking north we are about 7 miles north of downtown Fort Lauderdale and 25 miles north of Miami.  The high here today was 78° with partly cloudy skies.

Looking south 

Looking north

Slim