Blizzard revisited: What just happened?
Much press and speculation has been made about the great Blizzard of 1978, which slowed activity to a crawl from the Midwest states into New England. This was the result of an Alberta clipper merging with a storm system emanating from the Gulf of Mexico.
Areas to the west and east of Downriver reported up to three feet of snow in certain areas. However, our storm total for that timeframe registered at just 8.2 inches, which does not even qualify it for the list of top 25 snow storms to hit our area since the 1880s.
How did this end up being true? A freelance weather expert specializing in historical weather events indicated that much of the precipitation that initially fell during the storm was in the form of rain. This likely froze over and, combined with the snow, helped bring down power lines at a massive rate. In any event, parts of Downriver were crippled for several days without having the benefit of the exorbitant snow totals.
downriverhistory.blog 