Storm of the Century

[desh]

15 years ago right now...



The weekend of March 13, 1993, the "Storm of the Century" blew through the eastern half of the country. All of Pennsylvania, all of West Virginia, all but the coastal areas of New England, and even parts of Alabama and Georgia got at least a foot of snow; many cities were shut down well into the next week from a storm that started on a Saturday morning or earlier; and the wind and pressure set all sorts of national records for non-tropical storms -- in the middle of March. Most people around here think of winter as essentially over by now (notwithstanding craziness like last April 15th's storm), but 1993 was the evidence that even in mid-March the craziness isn't over. And that was the first real snow around here in the 1992-1993 winter, too.

Really, the amazing thing about the storm was its sheer size. The damn thing covered the whole US east coast at once, and if you didn't know better, you'd swear it was the biggest hurricane ever.

I was 12 years old that winter. I was already a few years into caring about current events, already having a favorite newspaper columnist and news radio anchor. But I never got as into a news story as I did with this storm. I saved newspapers. I took pictures of the snow. Hell, I took pictures of the newspaper. I also played with the neighbor's black lab on my lawn, I stuck my ruler into the snow so you could just see the top of it, and I just sat around and stayed warm until I had to go back to school on the 17th.

I thought it was the biggest storm I'd see in my life. But I wasn't even close.

Where were you?

Comments

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Blizzard_of_1977 this was my big storm. i still don't remember one like it.

[desh]

Yeah, nothing tops a good lake effect snow. Wasn't it some time in the past 5 or 6 years, early in the winter, when Buffalo just got like 6 feet over the course of a week or two? Ridiculous. When the wind is just right, sometimes we'll get some snow that's the tail end of a lake effect event, and it'll dump a couple inches here, in just a couple of hours. 300 miles from the nearest lake.

Edit: Yeah, 82.3 inches in a week. That's taller than my tallest friend, all 6'10" of him.

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

The terrible thing was that with the strength of the wind, the snow was packed solid. Shovels didn't work. Snowploughs didn't work. Heavy machinery was needed to chip houses out. My friend's family only got supplies by snowmobile, and they were lucky that they could open an upper story window. It was just boggling.

[ursamajor]

I was ... lessee, I was a freshman in high school in California then, so probably outside playing pickup softball and renewing my tan. ;)

[sleepsong.livejournal.com]

That was back when I still lived in Manhattan, and I vividly remember trying to break up the ice on the sidewalk outside our co-op and breaking our neighbour's hoe in the attempt.

[rivka-m.livejournal.com]

I remember 93. well, vaguely. I remember being impressed with it, and it being in march, and getting a week or so off of school. And my snow boots.

96? best. snow. ever. there were 2 story forts built in snow banks, snowballs to big to lift or stack. amazing.

[desh]

In 1996, I had to jump up and flop on my back to get over the ridge of plowed snow and into my driveway.

OK, I didn't have to...

I still get all warm and fuzzy inside whenever I see this map from '96.

[rivka-m.livejournal.com]

good times. I'm enjoying the spring weather, but I'm feeling like winter didn't properly happen this year.

[t3chnomag3.livejournal.com]

You're a strange boy. :)

[alanscottevil.livejournal.com]

So I realized today that winter is a lot less fun without a car.
Snow yay anyway..

[dagoski.livejournal.com]

I was in Michigan wondered what had ever possessed me to move there. When I wasn't doing that I was doing systems integration for a joint US-Soviet space mission and then later that year, I shifted over to ground control work for an experiment on the UARS satellite. That year I'd flip a coin as to whether I'd bike into work or drive my aging Microbus. Either way I was going to freeze, but one meant a good aerobic workout. Thank the Gawds for the Ann Arbor roads dept because they kept the roads clear enough to eat off of, But all the roads had these huge snow and ice walls making for a decidedly fantastic road traveling experience.

And, dang, I feel old again. I had to explain to people in one of my classes this year what the ARPA Net was. And now you tell me you were 12 in 1993. Man, I feel the Grim Reaper sneaking up on me.

[dagoski.livejournal.com]

That should read US-Russian. The project started as US Soviet, went dormant for a year, and then re-started as US Russian.

[erin.livejournal.com]

For 93, my bedroom was in the basement of our townhouse and the 3 foot window that sat at ground level was completely covered in snow.

For 96, I couldn't get home so I ended up staying with a girl from work for a week. I actually attribute the events that happened during '96 as somewhat life-changing, in a bad way. I hate that storm.

[(Anonymous)]

Seriously, did people forget about this? I tell stories about it all of the time and I always feel like everyone has forgotten. It was a blizzard... in MARCH! It was apocalyptic - streets in my neighborhood weren't clear for days.

[krisispm.livejournal.com]

That was me.

[t3chnomag3.livejournal.com]

Lessee.. I was 11 years old, and on the left coast. I'm sure I didn't care that there was a little snow 3000 miles away. We don't get blizzards.

And anyway, I was still getting over this little nugget of a storm:

http://www.climate.washington.edu/stormking/January1993.html

Which led to a tree hitting our house not long after we had just remodeled by putting a new addition on the side of it. Thankfully the tree didn't hit *that*. Plus, the power was out, so I got a boatload of ice cream!

[peneli.livejournal.com]

If I remember correctly, this is the one where there was so much snow that after my parents shoveled the driveway onto the yard, I made a snow-camel out of the mounds and pretended to ride it.

Also, my mom kept saying that easterners don't know what real blizzard is when they'd call it one. (She's from Chicago.)