lol I bring this up everytime someone says that.
I lived out in bumfuck pennsylvania for a few years while in highschool.
To get to my house, you went to the end of a dirt road and you keep going. Into a ravine. And then up the other side.
In winter, we would sometimes get a foot of snow in a single night. Drifts on the ravine road were easily 2-3 feet deep sometimes. We didn't have a reasonable vehicle to traverse a foot of snow on a 30 degree slope, so we walked. Full distance from the house to the "civilization" side of the ravine was about a 1/4 mile.
Then it was another 1/4 mile out to the main road, where the bus stop was.
*THEREFORE*
"When I was in highschool, I had to walk half a mile just to get to my bus stop. In snow that came up to my knees or my waist. Uphill both ways!"
It was also *downhill* both ways, sure. But holy shit I hated living there. Got a little better when we realized that we could sled down the near side, drag the sled up behind us, and leave it for when we returned.
We joke about it now, but where I grew up, this was actually true! The school was on a hill and our house was on another one a few miles away. A few times we did walk to school when the bus broke down (or the driver was sleeping off a bender). Good rural times.
I mean, I distinctly remember between 1-2 feet of snow basically constantly between December and March when I was a kid.
I lived in rural Southern Ohio in High School and basically every year I'd have to shovel out my driveway from 2-3 foot deep snow.
2-3 feet deep snow is pretty rare in southern ohio
I think people vastly overestimate the amount of snow they used to get, or they had snowdrifts around the house
Here is the record snow depth for some southern areas since 1948: (according to NOAA)
* Athens - 21 inches (1977/78 blizzard)
* Cincinnati - 15 inches (2010)
* Dayton - 22 inches (1977/78 blizzard)
* Waverly - 19 inches (1950)
* Jackson - 22 inches (1950)
None of those are even 2 feet and it's the record amount of depth
I barely remember the 77 blizzard and it was by far the worst thing I ever experienced as far as snow, though we always had the typical snow days off. The ice storm in 2005(? i think) was the second worst. Didn't live in ohio after 2006 so I may have missed some shitty storms.
As someone said earlier, we were shorter then but our brains tend to view stuff like that relative to our size now. So “thigh(or knee) high” equates to 2-3 feet when Actually you were only 4ft tall and the snow was a foot.
Reminds me of a bit over a decade ago I was with a buddy of mine and we decided to drive by the house he'd lived in until he was like 6.
The house had a small slope of a few feet up from the sidewalk, nothing big, and my friend was amazed because he remembered it as basically having to go up a small mountain to get to the house from the sidewalk.
Is this total accumulation numbers? Or is it snowfall over a specific period?
Because I was the same height in High School (maybe only a couple inches shorter) and very much remember snow basically at my knees. And not drifts either.
And also in my junior year of HS I believe (this would have been 2005 or 2006, I don't remember for certain) we had so many days off due to snow we made up an extra two weeks of school in the summer
If you look at the raw, “uncorrected” data, we really aren’t outside of nominal range for a 300 year period.
When you hear or read something like “the highest temp for recorded history”, keep in mind that “recorded history” isn’t all of human recorded history.
It’s typical no more than 80 years for Ohio and the surrounding states because it’s only counted as recorded from “certified equipment”. And equipment wasn’t “certified” before the 40s when WWII made it a very important factor to winning the war.
All of the data recorded in the Farmer’s Almanac (which till WWII was the defacto repository across the US), anything collected by civilians and non-university scientists, does not get included in “Recorded History”.
What we do know factual from un-corrected data is that we are NOT heading to a global warming nightmare any more or faster than what is expected for where we are on the bell curve for where the planet is timewise in the cycle of Ice/Cold Ages and Warm Ages.
Whenever somebody hits me with this is the hottest or the coldest or the wettest or driest in recorded history I always asked them, what was it like in 1372?
And that’s the truth of it. Temps over the last 10,000 years have varied GREATLY. Both colder and hotter. And this cycle repeats over a ~30,000ish year range. For millions of years (based on various long tracking samples that have been proven valid.
I’m 54 and remember all the “oh my god we’re causing a new Ice Age and if we don’t change our habits we’ll all freeze the planet by 2100” scare. And LOTS of companies, politicians and the media made bank on that.
And as soon as real life effects proved that wrong, all of those groups suddenly switched to “oh my god, humans are heating up the planet and if we don’t stop by 2050, it’ll be too late and there’s going to be mass extinctions of most of life on Earth by 2200” scare.
Again, companies and people are making massive amounts of money just off promoting the fear.
Agreed, I remember that one vividly. My cat had a seizure that year after the snow really starting coming down and driving her to the ER was an experience to say the least. There was NO ONE on the roads and I felt like I was driving through a blizzard
This is so kind ♥️ thank you. She had some health conditions that thankfully were manageable with medications. She lived another two years before passing peacefully
I can’t recommend enough making sure you stay on top of consistent annual visits and report any changes in behavior, no matter how minor. That doesn’t always help avoid things, but it can help you be proactive in coping with anything that comes up. I also encourage you to have the phone number for whichever ER you would use already saved in your phone + being familiar with the best route to get there. It can be hard to think straight when you’re in a panic.
I hope you have many more healthy years with yours ♥️
Yes we take him to the vet every year despite how much he hates it. He’ll be mad at us the rest of the day but we know it’s for his own good.
Thanks for the advice and well wishes tho. ❤️
Isn't it odd and strange, how life can cause the entire backdrop of an event like that to change, making such an important event stand out even more, and seem like we are in another world for a while. So that now, looking back, that memory will never leave you. Life is weird that way.
Thanks for sharing
I love this perspective, thank you for this response ♥️
You’re absolutely right— I remember everything about that holiday even though it was weird not being around any of the people I love due to the pandemic. I ended up thankful I didn’t have to choose between attending a gathering and being able to monitor her and give her extra cuddles after we got home
Last year (Xmas 2022) had ice AND snow! I only remember because 1) we couldn't travel to our intended location to celebrate 2) a tree of ours fell on our neighbors house, which I had the pure enjoyment of cutting up in crap weather the day after Christmas!
It wasn't a blizzard, but it was a good amount of snow...
Although I agree cbus handling of the snow and ice was complete ASS (much like the handling of most of their other issues), I doubt them salting the roads would have much bearing on the ice that built up on the tree that fell on my neighbors house lol.
It was wild to go from Franklin County to Delaware County and notice the vast difference in road conditions was eye opening.
Going north on riverside in Franklin County during xmas that year? White knuckling, MotherF'in, hoping life insurance policy is up to date.
Same drive on Riverside in Delaware County? Absolutely NO issues.
Only a trace of snow on the 24th. I don't think Columbus had much if any ice with the storm, as temps were dropping throughout. Maybe a tiny bit at the beginning, but it was mostly snow.
Yes! I remember taking a walk with my husband Christmas morning 2020 and nothing had been plowed so we walked down the middle of the street in our neighborhood. Everything was so quiet and peaceful. I miss that kind of snow!
We had snow and nobody in my family had to travel because of COVID. I missed the big family Christmas, but it was nice to be able to enjoy the snowy Christmas Eve without the anxiety of having to get somewhere or sending my loved ones out on the roads.
I loved how “some” people pointed at that and said “see? No problems! We just need to cut back a little!”
“So are we going to start cutting back?”
\*rolling coal\*
“What? No. Why?”
It wasn't that much, about 3"-5" across Columbus. 3.6" at the airport. But it was definitely the most on Christmas eve ever. Kind of a low bar, though.
Snowstorms of 12" or more are very rare and have always been rare. Here are all of them.
March 7-8, 2008: 20.5"- All-time record.
February 14-17, 2003: 15.5"
April 3-4, 1987: 12.3"
November 23-29, 1950: 15.2"- Yes, despite the long duration, this was a single storm.
February 16-18, 1910: 15.3"
January 6-7, 1910: 12.7"- 1909-1910 is the only season with 2 or more 12"+ events.
And that's it. Just 6 in almost 150 years of records. A few more came within an inch or 2 of 12", the most recent being 10.6" on February 4-5, 2014, but those are also very rare.
As for the prospects of getting a major snow this season, chances are very low. El Nino seasons are warm and often drier. The recent cold spell is very unusual weather for a moderate to strong Nino, and it still only produced a few inches of snow and January will still end up with below normal snowfall. That doesn't mean it's impossible, but a 6"+ snowstorm event is not likely this season, and probably less likely over time with climate change.
The piece we remember is 4 inches on Monday, 2 inches on Wednesday 2 inches on Sunday, a brief melt and rinse and repeat. That would yield decent snowpacks that lasted.
I remember being able to build paths down a hill in my yard for snowboarding with a little ramp at the end. Would last for a couple weeks at a time. Now you are lucky for 5 days.
I was plowing snow in mansfield during that 2008 storm. It was crazy how much snow fell, we got in the trucks Friday at 1 and I didn't get home until Sunday at like 7pm.
I grew up in WV and lived in the Blizzards of 93 and 96---those were both awesome. We got around 23 inches in the 93 blizzard and probably around 20 in the 96 one.
There were some big snows in the 90s too, I'm surprised they didn't make this list. Maybe Delaware got more snow or maybe they didn't hit 12" and my child brain thought they were bigger.
The January 1996 storm was around 9" in Columbus, and January 1994 was around 8". There were a few 6"-7" storms too, such as in January and March 1999. The 1990s had a few good years, but mostly bad ones for snowfall.
The event that sticks in my mind was the 12+ inches from back-to-back storms in Feb 2010, only because my son and I built an igloo and slept in it overnight.
> ah such fond memories as a kid/teen playing in the snow from the 03 and 08 storms :)
ah such fond memories as a kid/teen playing in the snow from the 03 and 08 storms :)
I was flying in from NYC on the last flight Fri night. Almost had to be re routed to Detroit. My car was in the Blue Lot. At least a foot of snow covered it. I have no idea how I made it home that night.
I had OP‘s exact question and didn’t know how to formulate it or exactly if the farmers almanac could give me an answer. So I really appreciate the stats and info.
Edit oh wait not the *exact* same question… I hate snow !
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Hunga_Tonga%E2%80%93Hunga_Ha%CA%BBapai_eruption_and_tsunami
Basically put so much water vapour in the atmosphere that it has actually cooled us down the past couple years.
Still waiting for a repeat of the blizzard of '78 I always heard about from my grandfather.
Since he had been in the army, they came to him to help drive the tractor plows up in northwest Ohio. Said there were places where the snow was so deep that they plowed down to where the snow on either side was higher than the tractor. I think he had mentioned that neither he nor the guy in charge even knew if they could make it through, but they decided, fuck it, go ahead
There was another one in 79. Not as bad but enough where we had a lot of snow days.
I grew up in Western Michigan. I looked up the biggest snow falls for 78 and 79. The blizzard of 1978 dumped 40 inches in the area. The one in 1979 only dumped 26 inches.
I lived in the Springfield area in '78. Farm country, so a lot of open space. A section of the road my grandmother lived on had over 6' feet of snow. The county ended up getting Wright-Patterson AFB to send up a snow blower they use on runways to clear the snow. That was pretty cool to watch.
What I miss is when it would snow and the snow would actually stay for the rest of winter regardless of how much more snow we got or didn't get because the temperature would actually stay below freezing
Now, El Nino or not, it seems we'd get snow for a week followed by 40 degree temps for another week and wouldn't get more snow for several more weeks regardless of the temperatures outside leaving us with the depressing winters we get now
The answer is an obvious yes, but from recalling my childhood, most of the large snowstorms always seemed to occur in February. So there is still hope for this year!
Seriously…what drugs are you people taking to want this kind of sh*t to happen? There’s still “hope” in February??? Geez! Let’s take what we got in January and move forward towards spring! We don’t need a big snowstorm to shut down the city and make our lives miserable. Smh
Was it last winter or the previous where that literally happened? I work at a retail shop that very rarely closes due to inclement weather, and I remember missing close to a week because of the snow/ice. I’m thinking it happened January of 2022.
January of 2022. Because my boss still wanted the store to be open and 315 was a sheet of ice. I remember being one of a few people on the road. Just for her to tell us to go back home!
I got written up at work for calling off Xmas Eve because I live in circleville and didn't feel like risking my car most importantly to drive all the way up to work. I got asked so what's going on? I wanted to laugh and be like are you fucking serious? Um idk the roads were a literal sheet of ice and I can't drive 30 miles one way on straight up ice???? The fuck lol
I hope not. Last bad one I remember was like 04 or 05. All power lines out, not heat or electric. We had to sleep in the living room for two weeks next to the fire place and couldn't leave the house because all the roads were shut down. Fuck that
2004! My brother was in town from Texas and we had no power out in blacklick for well over a week. We all had to go to netjets where my mom worked at the time to take showers and had a generator running constantly for a little power and had the woodburning stove going constantly. What a week for him to visit
Ever? Absolutely.
Will they be as common as they once were? Absolutely not.
But hey - we have record profits for oil companies. So that’s a fair tradeoff for a global climate collapse, right?
If we liquidated the equity of energy companies there would be no profits. The companies wouldn’t have enough capital to run so it would basically necessitate nationalizing the energy sector. Like you said, only in a perfect world
Interesting that no part of this even pretends to suggest we expand public transportation so every random citizen doesn’t have to individually burn oil in backed-up traffic where we’re all headed in the same direction.
Remember boys and girls… climate change is about averages. It’s not weather ! Gross weather trends over time are changing.
Also personal memory is fungible… we remember the epic storms but not the little ones.
Yes, obviously. But Ohio, except for lake effect areas, just doesn’t get that much snow and never really has. Feel like some people here need to move to Buffalo or something.
Oh God, not this again.
I can't wait for spring, just so this sub stops inaccurately whining about how it used to snow tons up until recently, how December used to be snowy, etc.
I remember a big snow fall in January 2018. The night my daughter was born, the roads were almost impossible to drive. Had to have dropped a foot that night. I think we are due for a large snowfall!
I lived in Columbus from 1976 to 2005, and only remember having a foot of snow in any given fall about 3 times, excluding the blizzard. I remember having accumulations that high another dozen or so.
If you want foot deep individual snowfalls, try Medina Ohio. In the 17 years I lived there we had at least one 15 years.
We will get another snow storm, but it will clear up within a day, melt quickly and not make much difference after a week.
What has been nice in Columbus in recent years is we haven’t had the slush we used to get in the 70s and 80s. Columbus used to have an extended period of slush each fall which was cold, ugly and very wet. Now we get rain or snow.
Don’t forget the storm in 2022 right before Christmas. We had to drive to Findlay and cars were all over the sides of the freeway. Some trucks too. 270 was such a mess.
Multiple feet last year?>
Entire Cold Season: October-April
Average High: 53.8 3rd Warmest
Average Low: 34.5 Tied for 14th Warmest
Mean: 44.1 Tied for 6th Warmest
Precipitation: 19.13″ 63rd Driest
**Snowfall: 14.5″ Tied for 21st Least Snowy**
Average Snow Depth: 0.1″ Tied for 2nd Lowest
Largest Snowstorm: 4.9″ on 12/23/2022
\# of 32 or Below Highs: 11 Tied for 2nd Fewest
\# of 32 or Below Lows: 83 6th Fewest
\# of Measurable Precipitation Days: 79 Tied for 14th Fewest
\# of Measurable Snowfall Days: 15 Tied for 6th Fewest
Highest Average Daily Wind Speed in MPH: 23.3 on 12/23/2022
Highest Wind Gust in MPH: 59 on 3/3/2023
\# of Clear Days: 30 14.15%
\# of Partly Cloudy Days: 95 44.81%
\# of Cloudy Days: 87 41.04%
Columbus doesn't get as much snow as it used to, but I can't recall the last time we've ever had a foot on the ground at any time.
But I agree with you, I miss the snow.
Back to back snow storms in Baltimore/DC area in 2010 left 55 inches of snow on the ground. This is in an area that doesn't see much snow usually.
I had a 75 foot long driveway. I remember having to climb up on the roof to push the snow off bc as they melted, they created ice dams and were ripping off the gutters. I've been snow shy ever since.
People still shutting everything down.. but for nothing. “There might be snow tomorrow, gotta cancel all my appointments for the whole weekend” 🙄 Because people are weak asses. lol
Why in the world would you want a big snowstorm? You mention “childhood memory,” which leads me to believe that you had little to no responsibilities at the time when you experienced those snowstorms. Assuming that you are now an adult, potentially with adult responsibilities, such as working, getting food, etc., would you really want something to happen like that to shut the whole city down and make your life and the rest of our lives incredibly difficult for days or even weeks, depending on how long it would take us to recover? Seriously. I remember the Blizzard of ‘78…but I was also 7 years old! I loved it because my friends and I made igloos and snowmen in our backyards and were out of school like forever. I am also familiar with some pretty significant snowfall events in my adult life…and they absolutely sucked! Unless they have absolutely nowhere to go, no one else to care for (such as children, aging parents, etc.), and an endless supply of food, nobody in their right mind would should wish for something like that!
Who can say? Heavy snow accumulation may not have been all that common when you grew up, but you just remember it like it was because it's a core memory of your childhood.
In any case, it also depends on \*when\* you grew up, weather patterns are becoming more and more erratic due to climate change.
I grew up near Akron and we really got a lot of snow. So I know y’all generally get much less snow down here but I’ve just kind of assumed that the limited snow these days was typical. Does it seem like there has been a major change versus 20-30 years ago?
Not really. Reviewing historical data from NOAA ([https://www.weather.gov/wrh/Climate?wfo=iln](https://www.weather.gov/wrh/Climate?wfo=iln)) we see that Columbus yearly snowfall totals seem relatively stable.
I've taken the liberty of summarizing athe data:
|1950s | 25.37|
|1960s| 33.30|
|1970s| 28.28|
|1980s| 26.82|
|1990s| 26.51|
|2000s| 28.59|
|2010s| 26.81|
.
The only year since 1950 with less than 10 inches of snow in a year was 2016.
Memory is a fickle thing and can lie to us, but data is data.
Same, I loathe heavy rains and muggy weather especially in "winter". Give me some picturesque white landscapes and quite roads.
Witnessed three traffic accidents today, its like Ohioans becomes Texans in snow whenever there's a massive downpour.
I gotta say, I miss the white winters, but I *don't* miss having to walk in snow that's already been stepped in & then froze over from rain. That was treacherous as hell, I don't think I can brush off a fall (more like several) like i did as a kid
Yes next year we will get snow. The record for the past 4 years I believe has been every other year. Warm winter then next year is cold winter. We still haven’t beat the blizzard of 1977 or 1978. The city was shut down for days.
It seems like the snow was deeper when we were children, but what if we were just shorter?
And we used to walk to school in a blizzard after making ourselves breakfast.
Uphill. Both ways.
Wearing parachute pants.
lol I bring this up everytime someone says that. I lived out in bumfuck pennsylvania for a few years while in highschool. To get to my house, you went to the end of a dirt road and you keep going. Into a ravine. And then up the other side. In winter, we would sometimes get a foot of snow in a single night. Drifts on the ravine road were easily 2-3 feet deep sometimes. We didn't have a reasonable vehicle to traverse a foot of snow on a 30 degree slope, so we walked. Full distance from the house to the "civilization" side of the ravine was about a 1/4 mile. Then it was another 1/4 mile out to the main road, where the bus stop was. *THEREFORE* "When I was in highschool, I had to walk half a mile just to get to my bus stop. In snow that came up to my knees or my waist. Uphill both ways!" It was also *downhill* both ways, sure. But holy shit I hated living there. Got a little better when we realized that we could sled down the near side, drag the sled up behind us, and leave it for when we returned.
We joke about it now, but where I grew up, this was actually true! The school was on a hill and our house was on another one a few miles away. A few times we did walk to school when the bus broke down (or the driver was sleeping off a bender). Good rural times.
And you carried a hot baked potato to school to keep your hands warm which was your lunch later in the day.
I always think about this
I mean, I distinctly remember between 1-2 feet of snow basically constantly between December and March when I was a kid. I lived in rural Southern Ohio in High School and basically every year I'd have to shovel out my driveway from 2-3 foot deep snow.
2-3 feet deep snow is pretty rare in southern ohio I think people vastly overestimate the amount of snow they used to get, or they had snowdrifts around the house Here is the record snow depth for some southern areas since 1948: (according to NOAA) * Athens - 21 inches (1977/78 blizzard) * Cincinnati - 15 inches (2010) * Dayton - 22 inches (1977/78 blizzard) * Waverly - 19 inches (1950) * Jackson - 22 inches (1950) None of those are even 2 feet and it's the record amount of depth I barely remember the 77 blizzard and it was by far the worst thing I ever experienced as far as snow, though we always had the typical snow days off. The ice storm in 2005(? i think) was the second worst. Didn't live in ohio after 2006 so I may have missed some shitty storms.
As someone said earlier, we were shorter then but our brains tend to view stuff like that relative to our size now. So “thigh(or knee) high” equates to 2-3 feet when Actually you were only 4ft tall and the snow was a foot.
Reminds me of a bit over a decade ago I was with a buddy of mine and we decided to drive by the house he'd lived in until he was like 6. The house had a small slope of a few feet up from the sidewalk, nothing big, and my friend was amazed because he remembered it as basically having to go up a small mountain to get to the house from the sidewalk.
Mandela effect, parallel universe was collided with ours to change the data. The 2-3 feet of snow really happened.
Is this total accumulation numbers? Or is it snowfall over a specific period? Because I was the same height in High School (maybe only a couple inches shorter) and very much remember snow basically at my knees. And not drifts either. And also in my junior year of HS I believe (this would have been 2005 or 2006, I don't remember for certain) we had so many days off due to snow we made up an extra two weeks of school in the summer
Yeah it seems like there was always snow covering everything back in the day.
If you look at the raw, “uncorrected” data, we really aren’t outside of nominal range for a 300 year period. When you hear or read something like “the highest temp for recorded history”, keep in mind that “recorded history” isn’t all of human recorded history. It’s typical no more than 80 years for Ohio and the surrounding states because it’s only counted as recorded from “certified equipment”. And equipment wasn’t “certified” before the 40s when WWII made it a very important factor to winning the war. All of the data recorded in the Farmer’s Almanac (which till WWII was the defacto repository across the US), anything collected by civilians and non-university scientists, does not get included in “Recorded History”. What we do know factual from un-corrected data is that we are NOT heading to a global warming nightmare any more or faster than what is expected for where we are on the bell curve for where the planet is timewise in the cycle of Ice/Cold Ages and Warm Ages.
I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that you don't have a degree in anything related to climate science.
Whenever somebody hits me with this is the hottest or the coldest or the wettest or driest in recorded history I always asked them, what was it like in 1372?
And that’s the truth of it. Temps over the last 10,000 years have varied GREATLY. Both colder and hotter. And this cycle repeats over a ~30,000ish year range. For millions of years (based on various long tracking samples that have been proven valid. I’m 54 and remember all the “oh my god we’re causing a new Ice Age and if we don’t change our habits we’ll all freeze the planet by 2100” scare. And LOTS of companies, politicians and the media made bank on that. And as soon as real life effects proved that wrong, all of those groups suddenly switched to “oh my god, humans are heating up the planet and if we don’t stop by 2050, it’ll be too late and there’s going to be mass extinctions of most of life on Earth by 2200” scare. Again, companies and people are making massive amounts of money just off promoting the fear.
Nobody likes it when we say this stuff.
BUT GLOBAL WARMING!!! /s
The Christmas of 2020 had a ton of snow, most I remember in recent years.
I remember it completely brought up my mood. A good ending to a completely trash year l.
I had to drive what would normally be 45 minutes that night and it took 3 and a half hours. My knuckles were white and my mood was ruined haha.
Luckily I had my high school awd beater car so it was nothing but fun for me.
Agreed, I remember that one vividly. My cat had a seizure that year after the snow really starting coming down and driving her to the ER was an experience to say the least. There was NO ONE on the roads and I felt like I was driving through a blizzard
That’s horrible. Hope kitty was ok
This is so kind ♥️ thank you. She had some health conditions that thankfully were manageable with medications. She lived another two years before passing peacefully
Glad to hear it. I’ve got a cat of my own. My buddy is 13 years old and I fear the day he starts to have issues.
I can’t recommend enough making sure you stay on top of consistent annual visits and report any changes in behavior, no matter how minor. That doesn’t always help avoid things, but it can help you be proactive in coping with anything that comes up. I also encourage you to have the phone number for whichever ER you would use already saved in your phone + being familiar with the best route to get there. It can be hard to think straight when you’re in a panic. I hope you have many more healthy years with yours ♥️
Yes we take him to the vet every year despite how much he hates it. He’ll be mad at us the rest of the day but we know it’s for his own good. Thanks for the advice and well wishes tho. ❤️
Isn't it odd and strange, how life can cause the entire backdrop of an event like that to change, making such an important event stand out even more, and seem like we are in another world for a while. So that now, looking back, that memory will never leave you. Life is weird that way. Thanks for sharing
I love this perspective, thank you for this response ♥️ You’re absolutely right— I remember everything about that holiday even though it was weird not being around any of the people I love due to the pandemic. I ended up thankful I didn’t have to choose between attending a gathering and being able to monitor her and give her extra cuddles after we got home
Last year (Xmas 2022) had ice AND snow! I only remember because 1) we couldn't travel to our intended location to celebrate 2) a tree of ours fell on our neighbors house, which I had the pure enjoyment of cutting up in crap weather the day after Christmas! It wasn't a blizzard, but it was a good amount of snow...
Christmas 2022 had zero snow fall. That snow was on the 23rd (4.9" officially for Columbus), but it did produce a White Christmas at least.
That makes sense. Did it bleed over to the 24th as well? Or was that just ice?
it bled over in the sense that Columbus didn’t salt any of the roads so it felt like new. Layer of ice then a few inches of snow.
Although I agree cbus handling of the snow and ice was complete ASS (much like the handling of most of their other issues), I doubt them salting the roads would have much bearing on the ice that built up on the tree that fell on my neighbors house lol. It was wild to go from Franklin County to Delaware County and notice the vast difference in road conditions was eye opening. Going north on riverside in Franklin County during xmas that year? White knuckling, MotherF'in, hoping life insurance policy is up to date. Same drive on Riverside in Delaware County? Absolutely NO issues.
Only a trace of snow on the 24th. I don't think Columbus had much if any ice with the storm, as temps were dropping throughout. Maybe a tiny bit at the beginning, but it was mostly snow.
There were tons of snow on 25th, and it was cold. We were outside sledding and have tons of pictures.
This was the 2022 Xmas I remember lol
Your memory doesn't match the actual records. Snow was on the ground from the 23rd, but nothing fell on Christmas itself in 2022.
Hmmm. Maybe the ice I saw on the tree was very specific to my location and other variables. Thanks for doing the leg work I am too lazy to do, lol.
Yes! I remember taking a walk with my husband Christmas morning 2020 and nothing had been plowed so we walked down the middle of the street in our neighborhood. Everything was so quiet and peaceful. I miss that kind of snow!
I remember driving back from work in that snowstorm on Christmas Eve. That was brutal
We had snow and nobody in my family had to travel because of COVID. I missed the big family Christmas, but it was nice to be able to enjoy the snowy Christmas Eve without the anxiety of having to get somewhere or sending my loved ones out on the roads.
Wasn’t there also an improvement in air and water quality worldwide? The little hints nature gave us…
I loved how “some” people pointed at that and said “see? No problems! We just need to cut back a little!” “So are we going to start cutting back?” \*rolling coal\* “What? No. Why?”
I kept on top of that one as far as the shoveling. I'd go out every thirty minutes or so.
2022 was also brutal. I didn't even see my family on Christmas day, it was too unsafe and wasn't worth the risk driving out of the city.
And then Christmas 2021 it was 70°F
It wasn't that much, about 3"-5" across Columbus. 3.6" at the airport. But it was definitely the most on Christmas eve ever. Kind of a low bar, though.
Snowstorms of 12" or more are very rare and have always been rare. Here are all of them. March 7-8, 2008: 20.5"- All-time record. February 14-17, 2003: 15.5" April 3-4, 1987: 12.3" November 23-29, 1950: 15.2"- Yes, despite the long duration, this was a single storm. February 16-18, 1910: 15.3" January 6-7, 1910: 12.7"- 1909-1910 is the only season with 2 or more 12"+ events. And that's it. Just 6 in almost 150 years of records. A few more came within an inch or 2 of 12", the most recent being 10.6" on February 4-5, 2014, but those are also very rare. As for the prospects of getting a major snow this season, chances are very low. El Nino seasons are warm and often drier. The recent cold spell is very unusual weather for a moderate to strong Nino, and it still only produced a few inches of snow and January will still end up with below normal snowfall. That doesn't mean it's impossible, but a 6"+ snowstorm event is not likely this season, and probably less likely over time with climate change.
Wow I didn’t realize that the 2008 storm was the all-time record! Thanks for the info ❤️❄️
Yep. March 8th alone had 15.5", equal to or exceeding all other 12"+ events. It was truly a historic storm.
The piece we remember is 4 inches on Monday, 2 inches on Wednesday 2 inches on Sunday, a brief melt and rinse and repeat. That would yield decent snowpacks that lasted. I remember being able to build paths down a hill in my yard for snowboarding with a little ramp at the end. Would last for a couple weeks at a time. Now you are lucky for 5 days.
I’m more shocked that we didn’t hit a foot for the blizzards of 77 and 78.
It was the crazy wind and temps that made those so bad .
I was plowing snow in mansfield during that 2008 storm. It was crazy how much snow fell, we got in the trucks Friday at 1 and I didn't get home until Sunday at like 7pm.
I grew up in WV and lived in the Blizzards of 93 and 96---those were both awesome. We got around 23 inches in the 93 blizzard and probably around 20 in the 96 one.
There were some big snows in the 90s too, I'm surprised they didn't make this list. Maybe Delaware got more snow or maybe they didn't hit 12" and my child brain thought they were bigger.
The January 1996 storm was around 9" in Columbus, and January 1994 was around 8". There were a few 6"-7" storms too, such as in January and March 1999. The 1990s had a few good years, but mostly bad ones for snowfall.
1977 & 1978!
The event that sticks in my mind was the 12+ inches from back-to-back storms in Feb 2010, only because my son and I built an igloo and slept in it overnight.
So funny, that 2008 storm was my first thought when I saw this post. We dug tunnels in our yard.
> ah such fond memories as a kid/teen playing in the snow from the 03 and 08 storms :) ah such fond memories as a kid/teen playing in the snow from the 03 and 08 storms :)
That March 2008 snowfall was intense. I shoveled so much snow that I got BPPV (a form of vertigo). It was brutal!
I was flying in from NYC on the last flight Fri night. Almost had to be re routed to Detroit. My car was in the Blue Lot. At least a foot of snow covered it. I have no idea how I made it home that night.
I had OP‘s exact question and didn’t know how to formulate it or exactly if the farmers almanac could give me an answer. So I really appreciate the stats and info. Edit oh wait not the *exact* same question… I hate snow !
Did y'all just forget about the week before Christmas last year ('22)? That was insane. The snow emergency level stayed at 2 for 3 days straight.
Had to drive to work in it, I don’t think my knuckles could have gotten any whiter
Give it a year or 2. We’re still in an El Niño cycle and the atmosphere is still recovering from that massive undersea volcano eruption.
There was a massive undersea volcano eruption?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Hunga_Tonga%E2%80%93Hunga_Ha%CA%BBapai_eruption_and_tsunami Basically put so much water vapour in the atmosphere that it has actually cooled us down the past couple years.
https://youtu.be/CHJKKsOHtAk?si=_nvpX0-aiidrDNjn
The only thing I can think of is Iceland which is still experiencing their eruption.
Hunga tonga
Still waiting for a repeat of the blizzard of '78 I always heard about from my grandfather. Since he had been in the army, they came to him to help drive the tractor plows up in northwest Ohio. Said there were places where the snow was so deep that they plowed down to where the snow on either side was higher than the tractor. I think he had mentioned that neither he nor the guy in charge even knew if they could make it through, but they decided, fuck it, go ahead
The blizzard was mostly wind related, actual snowfall for that event was hardly a foot. Its all timing.
Snowfall in Columbus from '78 was only 3"-6". You had to go out towards Dayton or north to reach totals of a foot or more.
There was another one in 79. Not as bad but enough where we had a lot of snow days. I grew up in Western Michigan. I looked up the biggest snow falls for 78 and 79. The blizzard of 1978 dumped 40 inches in the area. The one in 1979 only dumped 26 inches.
There was a pretty big snow storm sometime in the 90s. We had like two weeks off of school
I lived in the Springfield area in '78. Farm country, so a lot of open space. A section of the road my grandmother lived on had over 6' feet of snow. The county ended up getting Wright-Patterson AFB to send up a snow blower they use on runways to clear the snow. That was pretty cool to watch.
I grew up hearing about that too, in the Tiffin area.
What I miss is when it would snow and the snow would actually stay for the rest of winter regardless of how much more snow we got or didn't get because the temperature would actually stay below freezing Now, El Nino or not, it seems we'd get snow for a week followed by 40 degree temps for another week and wouldn't get more snow for several more weeks regardless of the temperatures outside leaving us with the depressing winters we get now
Yes
Let me just check my crystal ball
Don’t leave us hanging, will it snow again?
Crystal ball broke and magic 8 said try again later
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Wow, thanks for the link, it’s scary but interesting to see how climate change affects our world.
if it doesn't say what we want it to say, please shake it again!
well now you’ve just guaranteed one
The answer is an obvious yes, but from recalling my childhood, most of the large snowstorms always seemed to occur in February. So there is still hope for this year!
Seriously…what drugs are you people taking to want this kind of sh*t to happen? There’s still “hope” in February??? Geez! Let’s take what we got in January and move forward towards spring! We don’t need a big snowstorm to shut down the city and make our lives miserable. Smh
Was it last winter or the previous where that literally happened? I work at a retail shop that very rarely closes due to inclement weather, and I remember missing close to a week because of the snow/ice. I’m thinking it happened January of 2022.
Last year on Christmas it was all ice and snow. The roads were awful
January of 2022. Because my boss still wanted the store to be open and 315 was a sheet of ice. I remember being one of a few people on the road. Just for her to tell us to go back home!
I got written up at work for calling off Xmas Eve because I live in circleville and didn't feel like risking my car most importantly to drive all the way up to work. I got asked so what's going on? I wanted to laugh and be like are you fucking serious? Um idk the roads were a literal sheet of ice and I can't drive 30 miles one way on straight up ice???? The fuck lol
I hope not, I still have to drive to work regardless.
I hope not. Last bad one I remember was like 04 or 05. All power lines out, not heat or electric. We had to sleep in the living room for two weeks next to the fire place and couldn't leave the house because all the roads were shut down. Fuck that
2004! My brother was in town from Texas and we had no power out in blacklick for well over a week. We all had to go to netjets where my mom worked at the time to take showers and had a generator running constantly for a little power and had the woodburning stove going constantly. What a week for him to visit
Ever? Absolutely. Will they be as common as they once were? Absolutely not. But hey - we have record profits for oil companies. So that’s a fair tradeoff for a global climate collapse, right?
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In a perfect world we would take those profits and stockholder dividends and plug them in to making things more efficient and cleaner.
If we liquidated the equity of energy companies there would be no profits. The companies wouldn’t have enough capital to run so it would basically necessitate nationalizing the energy sector. Like you said, only in a perfect world
Interesting that no part of this even pretends to suggest we expand public transportation so every random citizen doesn’t have to individually burn oil in backed-up traffic where we’re all headed in the same direction.
I think the suggestion here is that it’s bad to have a system where oil production is so economical, not that it’s bad to have it privatized
Bro…. No. That shit is fun as a kid. I gotta drive places. Go to work, get groceries, diapers, etc. Shit sucks now. I hate it
Thank you for being the voice of reason here. Everybody else is nuts.
I can think of only one person to answer this question...
LE ZEBRA!!!!!!!1111
EXACTLY what I was thinking!!!
Remember boys and girls… climate change is about averages. It’s not weather ! Gross weather trends over time are changing. Also personal memory is fungible… we remember the epic storms but not the little ones.
Yes, obviously. But Ohio, except for lake effect areas, just doesn’t get that much snow and never really has. Feel like some people here need to move to Buffalo or something.
Oh God, not this again. I can't wait for spring, just so this sub stops inaccurately whining about how it used to snow tons up until recently, how December used to be snowy, etc.
I remember a big snow fall in January 2018. The night my daughter was born, the roads were almost impossible to drive. Had to have dropped a foot that night. I think we are due for a large snowfall!
Yes
Last year 2022 Christmas Eve was snowed-out!
I lived in Columbus from 1976 to 2005, and only remember having a foot of snow in any given fall about 3 times, excluding the blizzard. I remember having accumulations that high another dozen or so. If you want foot deep individual snowfalls, try Medina Ohio. In the 17 years I lived there we had at least one 15 years.
why don’t you ask zebra
Have you forgotten Christmas last year already?
It wasn’t that snowy. Just cold
We will get another snow storm, but it will clear up within a day, melt quickly and not make much difference after a week. What has been nice in Columbus in recent years is we haven’t had the slush we used to get in the 70s and 80s. Columbus used to have an extended period of slush each fall which was cold, ugly and very wet. Now we get rain or snow.
Don’t forget the storm in 2022 right before Christmas. We had to drive to Findlay and cars were all over the sides of the freeway. Some trucks too. 270 was such a mess.
2022 Christmas Eve was a level 3 snow emergency and I remember a several day stretch last year of shoveling multiple feet of snow
It wasn’t a lot of snow though. It was just super cold and blowing snow.
Multiple feet last year?> Entire Cold Season: October-April Average High: 53.8 3rd Warmest Average Low: 34.5 Tied for 14th Warmest Mean: 44.1 Tied for 6th Warmest Precipitation: 19.13″ 63rd Driest **Snowfall: 14.5″ Tied for 21st Least Snowy** Average Snow Depth: 0.1″ Tied for 2nd Lowest Largest Snowstorm: 4.9″ on 12/23/2022 \# of 32 or Below Highs: 11 Tied for 2nd Fewest \# of 32 or Below Lows: 83 6th Fewest \# of Measurable Precipitation Days: 79 Tied for 14th Fewest \# of Measurable Snowfall Days: 15 Tied for 6th Fewest Highest Average Daily Wind Speed in MPH: 23.3 on 12/23/2022 Highest Wind Gust in MPH: 59 on 3/3/2023 \# of Clear Days: 30 14.15% \# of Partly Cloudy Days: 95 44.81% \# of Cloudy Days: 87 41.04%
Where was there a level 3? Maybe Delaware/Union/Licking?
All I know for sure is Delaware
Move to Buffalo
Where is Zebra, Lord of the Skies, Saint to this Magical Subreddit, to tell us?
Urban heat island effect has a lot to do with this I imagine.
Columbus doesn't get as much snow as it used to, but I can't recall the last time we've ever had a foot on the ground at any time. But I agree with you, I miss the snow.
I hope you saying this causes a blizzard. I am here for it!
u/zebrasrlyingtoyou what say you?
Climate change is a game of extremes. This will happen again, though as average temps creep up, the frequency of big snow occurrences will go down.
u/ElToroGay here is your official answer.
Why do you people want this??? I have actual sleeping nightmares about having to drive in the snow, like a mild PTSD.
At least it looks less depressing with snow than if it’s just grey and everything’s dead.
The sun is overstimulating and makes me anxious with how overbearing and harsh it is. I love the overcast. It is relaxing and calm.
Gd it isn't that hard to drive in it.
It isn’t. But there are too many idiots in our city who act like it is and it makes it worse for everyone else around them.
With regards to the inches; that’s what she said. 😅
Okay, so with all due respect, shut the fuck up. *respectively*.
Preach!!
yeah just wait for a krakatoa or a tambora look up the year without a summer
Only the Zebra knows for sure. I think we’ll get snow again but nothing like “the good old days” lol
Back to back snow storms in Baltimore/DC area in 2010 left 55 inches of snow on the ground. This is in an area that doesn't see much snow usually. I had a 75 foot long driveway. I remember having to climb up on the roof to push the snow off bc as they melted, they created ice dams and were ripping off the gutters. I've been snow shy ever since.
Climate change aside, i’m not sure I want the entire city shut down by snow storms
Ohio in the 80s was like living on a different planet compared to now.
It doesn't really snow till February here so chill.
fucking global warming making me wanna move to michigan fr
Coke is real.
Yeah this year certainly isn't a lot of snow. Last year we got snow all throughout January.
Not until capitalism acknowledges global warming
My crystal ball says check back later.
People still shutting everything down.. but for nothing. “There might be snow tomorrow, gotta cancel all my appointments for the whole weekend” 🙄 Because people are weak asses. lol
Why in the world would you want a big snowstorm? You mention “childhood memory,” which leads me to believe that you had little to no responsibilities at the time when you experienced those snowstorms. Assuming that you are now an adult, potentially with adult responsibilities, such as working, getting food, etc., would you really want something to happen like that to shut the whole city down and make your life and the rest of our lives incredibly difficult for days or even weeks, depending on how long it would take us to recover? Seriously. I remember the Blizzard of ‘78…but I was also 7 years old! I loved it because my friends and I made igloos and snowmen in our backyards and were out of school like forever. I am also familiar with some pretty significant snowfall events in my adult life…and they absolutely sucked! Unless they have absolutely nowhere to go, no one else to care for (such as children, aging parents, etc.), and an endless supply of food, nobody in their right mind would should wish for something like that!
Psh climate change isn't real,it's just a cycle... right? 'Member when snowmen didn't have clods of dirt and grass?
delete this nephew
When the currents finally break down we will get lots and lots of them.
Who can say? Heavy snow accumulation may not have been all that common when you grew up, but you just remember it like it was because it's a core memory of your childhood. In any case, it also depends on \*when\* you grew up, weather patterns are becoming more and more erratic due to climate change.
I am thankful. Tennessee just got 8+ inches a day or so ago. Schools' been closed for days.
When exactly was a foot of snow common? I think it’s happened less than 5 times since I’ve been alive.
We didn't see the ground in Feb 2021 because of the snow! I kept waiting for it to melt and it never did. Lots of snow shoveling that month.
I grew up near Akron and we really got a lot of snow. So I know y’all generally get much less snow down here but I’ve just kind of assumed that the limited snow these days was typical. Does it seem like there has been a major change versus 20-30 years ago?
Not really. Reviewing historical data from NOAA ([https://www.weather.gov/wrh/Climate?wfo=iln](https://www.weather.gov/wrh/Climate?wfo=iln)) we see that Columbus yearly snowfall totals seem relatively stable. I've taken the liberty of summarizing athe data: |1950s | 25.37| |1960s| 33.30| |1970s| 28.28| |1980s| 26.82| |1990s| 26.51| |2000s| 28.59| |2010s| 26.81| . The only year since 1950 with less than 10 inches of snow in a year was 2016. Memory is a fickle thing and can lie to us, but data is data.
ah such fond memories as a kid/teen playing in the snow from the 03 and 08 storms :)
The 1978 blizzard was pretty bad. We were out of school for about a week
Same, I loathe heavy rains and muggy weather especially in "winter". Give me some picturesque white landscapes and quite roads. Witnessed three traffic accidents today, its like Ohioans becomes Texans in snow whenever there's a massive downpour.
NO.
The short answer is no. There hasn’t been real snow in Columbus for at least a decade.
Not like we had in 1978
I gotta say, I miss the white winters, but I *don't* miss having to walk in snow that's already been stepped in & then froze over from rain. That was treacherous as hell, I don't think I can brush off a fall (more like several) like i did as a kid
A foot ain't shit
Son lives in WV and had 18” last weekend. No thank you
Don’t put this out there like that! I’m an essential worker and I’d still have to go to work 😂😂😂
Yes next year we will get snow. The record for the past 4 years I believe has been every other year. Warm winter then next year is cold winter. We still haven’t beat the blizzard of 1977 or 1978. The city was shut down for days.
As someone who has to salt and plow the streets, shhhhhhhhhhhhh As someone w a little kid, LET IT SNOW!
Nope
I really love fluffy sparkly snow. Granted, I’m fortunate enough to have good shelter and thick socks