Good old fashioned blizzard

Don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve been in a real blizzard. As a kid I remember having to spend a few nights in a hotel after hockey games, a couple times some drifting because of wind blowing “old” snow around. What is being predicted for Sioux City and south tonight and then moving east could be one for the books. If you value your life, please don’t drive out in the open areas. Not sure we will see the brutal cold, but with the 40mph breeze we could see some impressive snow totals. Anyone have a good old fashioned blizzard story to share?

I remember there being a lot more snow around when I was a kid. Now it seems the average year isn’t so bad. Which is fine with me since I have to drive in it now, but as a kid – I loved it!

Here are some interesting snowfall records for the Twin Cities area. The winter season I was born was bumped to #11 thanks to the 2010-2011 season. The Halloween snowstorm of 1991 still holds the records for the most snowfall in 24 hours and the most for a single storm.

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Growing up in southern WI my all time big snow was when I was in elem school. They closed the schools early and there was already so much snow on the ground our parents had to walk to school to get us. Walking home we walked by our neighbor’s car that was stuck in the middle of the road in a drift and when the plow finally got there, the plow got stuck in the same drift. for years the road held the divots in the pavement where the second plow’s wheels were spinning trying to pull the first plow out. Be safe!

I was in Hutchinson in 1965 at the old age of 9 when we had snow that standing on some of the piles, we could see over the roof of our garage. The snow on the side walks was taller than I was.

This was the year the dam in Hutch broke in the spring. The run off also set the record water level at lock and dam #3. It was over the top of the lock covering most of the hand rails.

I of course wasn’t driving at the time. The years 1974-’75 and 1984-’85 were great snowmobiling years as well. We could travel anywhere by sled. (and we did)

I grew up in Ratscene, WI and the kept data of the snofalls are skewed between the lake affect and where it is measured at. Had plenty of 20+” wet heavy snowfalls.

Most memorable will always be Dec 14th, 1987 We got close to 20″ of snow, but had 75mph winds. Went down to check the waves at Lake MI. NEVER seen waves crashing that high before. We had snow drifts in our yard that completely covered our house and garage. My back is still sore from shoveling

chomps wrote:

Don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve been in a real blizzard. As a kid I remember having to spend a few nights in a hotel after hockey games, a couple times some drifting because of wind blowing “old” snow around. What is being predicted for Sioux City and south tonight and then moving east could be one for the books. If you value your life, please don’t drive out in the open areas. Not sure we will see the brutal cold, but with the 40mph breeze we could see some impressive snow totals. Anyone have a good old fashioned blizzard story to share?

This is infuriating for people with sleds up here that have been waiting all winter for good snow.

I grew up on a ND farm and I remember the big blizzard of 1966. It stormed so badly for three days that travel was completely impossible due to heavy snow and zero visibility. My dad made it to the barn to take care of the animals, but even that was risky.
After the storm, the snow was so deep in the yard that it was impossible to move it even with a tractor and loader. Luckily the snow got very hard and the answer was to just drive over the drifts to get out of the yard and park the car outside of the yard until the snow melted.
The drifts were so deep that several outbuildings were completely covered with snow. I can remember dad walking with long rods poking down into the snow to find the roofs of several buildings in our yard. When he found a roof, he’d dig down to it and then try to shovel the snow off to prevent the rafters from breaking from the weight of the snow. I remember the snow being 3-4 feet higher than the roof peaks. Still, I remember several rafters breaking on a wooden granary before he could get the snow shoveled off of it.
Many people had to go out of their upstairs windows to get out of their houses when it subsided. It was an unbelievable storm.
Luckily, the storm happened in March and spring was right around the corner.
I’ll never forget it.

We need to remember a few things about the blizzards of old.

1) We all were a lot shorter then.Those snowbanks were BIG!!

2) Most rural roads didn’t have ditches to catch the snow so it just piled on the road beds.

We currently are on a job in Des Moines Iowa. It doesn’t look good for getting out of here before it hits around here. How far North into Minnesota is the storm expected to reach?

I remember when I was a kid it would snow so much that we had to tunnel through the snow to school uphills both ways with our feet just wrapped in bread bags to keep them dry.

Dutchboy wrote:

How far North into Minnesota is the storm expected to reach?

Twin Cities look to be on the northern edge. The NW burbs are supposed to get snow, but not more than a couple inches.

Hmmm, old memorys- – I remember back in the 50’s sled riding off the roof of the house in Pierre, SD. The blizzard of 65-66, I was in college in Spearfish, SD. Snow piled up so bad they called school off but the real tragedy was the beer trucks couldn’t get out to make deliverys either jerr

I grew up on the plains of western Mn. In the winter of 65 we had a blizzard that kept us snowed in for close to 2 weeks. The biggest drift in our drive way was 23 feet tall when they finally got to us with a road grader and 2 front end loaders from the state. There was snow up the side of our 2 story house to the roof that us kids used for sledding. Towards the end we were running low on food so we got groceries delivered with early snowmobiles. First ones I had ever seen. There were fatalities form that storm. People got stuck on the road and couldn’t find shelter.

Come on you Iowegians. BLOW like your good at it. Push that storm further north!!!!
Turn every gas engine on and greenhouse that snow to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

83-84, I remember waiting for it to stop so I could shovel the snow banks out into the yard so I’d have some place to put the stuff the next time it snowed. Nothing better than shoveling the same snow twice. That winter almost killed me.

SR

Sucks I don’t believe all the weather terrorists that are on TV nowadays, kind of takes the fun out of the anticipation.

mplspug wrote:

I remember when I was a kid it would snow so much that we had to tunnel through the snow to school uphills both ways with our feet just wrapped in bread bags to keep them dry.

I remember that bread bag trick. Some times it worked, and others…..well.

Last night they had Olmsted County in a Blizzard warning for this storm and now we are in a heavy snow warning, not blizzard. For all I care this whole mess could go south by a couple hundred miles.

Growing up in the tiny hamlet of Cyrus, MN, in western MN near Morris we mainly struggled with blowing snow and as often as not school would be called off on days when it hadn’t actually snowed, it was just blowing what was already on the ground. Once in January we had 2 week period where we had only 3 full days of school.

One of the biggest differences was that there weren’t reliable radios or cell phones, etc back in the day, so you simply couldn’t take chances on sending buses out and then having them not come back and then having no idea where they might be stuck.

The most interesting situation I recall was in the wee hours of a January morning in 1980 when our neighbor, the Lutheran Minister, came knocking at our door. It was blowing a hurricane out and the drifts had closed the roads all over western MN.

Problem was the minister’s wife was pregnant and the time had come! This was not optimal to say the least. They had called the police and the hospital and the reply was that no police were in the area and ambulances were all out on other calls.

So my father put chains on his old F-100 Ranger, locked in the hubs, and the minister, his in-labor wife, and dad all disappeared into the blizzard. I remember I had a terrible feeling when dad’s tail lights disappeared into the blinding snow and darkness. We all sat around the kitchen table and listen to the wind tear at the plastic that we had to wrap our old house in back then to keep the wind out.

They made it the 7 miles to Morris, it took over an hour and multiple dig-outs and drift busting back/forth runs. The baby was born about about 20 minutes after they arrived. Dad later remarked that that was about as dicey of a winter ride as he’d ever care to take and about as close to having to conduct an in-pickup baby delivery as he’d ever care to get.

Grouse

This could be really bad for the pheasants and other wildlife. The pheasant population in Iowa is just starting to rebound from some harsh winters and wet, cool nesting seasons. One blizzard can wipe out all those gains and really set them back. I’ve read the storms are especially hard on the birds if they hit during the day when the birds could be caught in the open. Snow and wind is a bad combination. Hopefully it won’t be bad.

Boone

Tom Sawvell wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mplspug wrote:</div>
I remember when I was a kid it would snow so much that we had to tunnel through the snow to school uphills both ways with our feet just wrapped in bread bags to keep them dry.

I remember that bread bag trick. Some times it worked, and others…..well.

Last night they had Olmsted County in a Blizzard warning for this storm and now we are in a heavy snow warning, not blizzard. For all I care this whole mess could go south by a couple hundred miles.

awe tom………..where’s your sense of adventure!!!!!!!!! I get to go to red wing tomorrow and drive home in it!!!!!!!

Dutchboy wrote:

We need to remember a few things about the blizzards of old.

1) We all were a lot shorter then.Those snowbanks were BIG!!

2) Most rural roads didn’t have ditches to catch the snow so it just piled on the road beds.

We currently are on a job in Des Moines Iowa. It doesn’t look good for getting out of here before it hits around here. How far North into Minnesota is the storm expected to reach?

I may have been shorter back then but those drifts were as big then as I remember them. Almost every township road where I live had ditches in 1966. It made no difference if a road had ditches or not in that storm.

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I remember a time in high school (around 1985) when I was a dishwasher and not having enough sense to call in. I ended up stranded at the restaurant and spent the night on the banquet room floor.

Randy Wieland wrote:

I grew up in Ratscene, WI and the kept data of the snofalls are skewed between the lake affect and where it is measured at. Had plenty of 20+” wet heavy snowfalls.

Most memorable will always be Dec 14th, 1987 We got close to 20″ of snow, but had 75mph winds. Went down to check the waves at Lake MI. NEVER seen waves crashing that high before. We had snow drifts in our yard that completely covered our house and garage. My back is still sore from shoveling

That one received little fanfare before it hit.I got stranded at work that night,Hwy 32 was impassable until the following morning.Worked a double shift,surprised the power stayed on.Made it home no problem in the trusty 1975 Dodge Dart,with 6 bags of oil dry in the trunk.

A day and a half before that was one of the best steelhead trips on the Sheboygan river.

1978-1979 was the worst for Racine.

I remember the winter of 13-14. Snow on the ground all year.

Growing up in Iowa, my senior year of High School in February 2008 had a good old ice storm! I don’t remember how much ice we actually got, but we had 2 full weeks in a row off of school due to no electricity. At our house in town, I believe we went 8 days without power. My parents had turned on our gas fire place before the power went off, so the main level of our house was heated just fine. We grilled all of our meals. Used a vehicle as a generator so we could watch one movie a night, and played board games by candlelight. It was good family bonding time!

After a day or two, it was fine to travel everywhere. There were just so many power lines down that it took forever to get them all back up and running. Some of my friends in the country went nearly a month before their power came back. They funny thing is, our school district is made up of a few different towns, and the town with the High School never lost their power the entire time. But the elementary and middle school towns (where I lived) were out of power for 8 days. So some of my friends were just in heaven, had power, no bad roads, but no school because of the other towns!

I’ll take the good Old Fashioned, you can keep the blizzard.

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Appears to be nudging north!

Must have been the early 80’s, my mom was an switchboard operator at the hospital and word was going out to anybody with a snowmobile that help was needed getting stranded motorists off of the interstate and bring them into the hospital. My dad and older brother made a few runs. Didn’t seem so bad in town, but a couple of the over passes on the interstate were blown shut and some of the snowblowers from the air force base came through and cleaned them out. Grew up in Worthington MN, one of the windiest places I’ve known.

I have been plowing snpw since 83,The hallowen storm was the worst i think, lived in a grader for 3 and half days. I went by my house and the wife was shoveling out the driveway snow up to her rear,wben i went by with the blade smow was up past her chest. She tbrew the shovel and cried.I said to myself you better back up this blade and poke a hole in the driveway. The smow equipment we have now is so much bigger ,faster. then back then. If you ask any snowplower this ,snow really not that big of thing ,its the bad ice storms that tney remember. DK

That Halloween Storm back in 1991 was interesting. I had to take the semester off of college due to medical issues, so I was working 2 jobs. My night job was as a cook in a local joint like an A&W.

It had started snowing at about 2 in the afternoon and I went off to my night job at 4:00 to do the dinner shift. I looked out the back door at 7 and there was a couple of inches of snow. At 8, I looked out again and couldn’t swing the back door open because there was over a foot of snow holding it shut.

At 9, a couple of snowmobiles pulled in to the drive through. I knew we were in trouble then. We closed up early and I got home without too much trouble, but it was the first time I can recall having to shovel my way IN to the driveway just to get my car off the street.

Grouse

mplspug wrote:

I remember the winter of 13-14. Snow on the ground all year.

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