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Wintry Favorite winter storms of all time

SnowE73 said:
1) Christmas 2010 (lived in Raleigh) - 9 inches of beautiful snow. My father-in-law was visiting from Florida. He complained the whole time. His dog that he got when he lived in Montana had a blast.
2) February 2014 (lived in Winston-Salem) - like 10 inches of snow/sleet mix (mostly snow). It took forever to melt.
3) December 2017 (lived in Roswell, GA) - 8 inches of all snow.

Runner Up - pretty much any snowstorm when I lived in NC that my dog Abby (see avatar) got to play in the snow. She loved the snow so much.
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I hope Abby isn't dead :(
 
Thanks for posting the Spann videos. I've watched them several times on YouTube and, as far as I know, are the best recordings available of the event as it happened (at least from a Bama/SE US perspective). I know there are a few short videos from The Weather Channel and a couple from WSB-TV out of Atlanta that are also online, but I think the Spann videos are the best. Glad that we have some actual storm history on video to look back on (especially from the Stone Age before the Internet existed!)
 
1. February 12, 2010 - Close to 4 inches, day time event, pure wet snow.

2. January 28, 2014 - Accum of Sleet, Snow, and Freezing Rain, first time I saw all in one storm.

3. January 16, 2018 - Coldest Snow event I’ve experienced, powdery snow, was in a bullseye of 3 inches.

4. December 8, 2017 - Earliest Snowstorm I’ve experienced

4. December 25-26, 2010 - Saw snow for the first time on Christmas and had flurries all day the next day

5. March 1, 2009 - Latest snow storm I’ve experienced, not much accumulation but it was a fun dynamic storm

Honorable mention of January 2, 2002, was 5 though so I don’t remember much.
 
1. Jan 88 - 8-10" of pure powder, snow fell with temps around 20. Hung around for a full week.

2. Feb 1-2, 1985 - Going to date myself here, but the period from mid Jan thru early Febuary in 85 is what sparked my interest in weather. Had well over 20" combined at my location in at least four different events plus -20 temps. The early Feb storm dropped 7-10" on the Nashville area with temps in the teens. Snow was on the ground for 28 out of 30 days during this stretch. We missed three plus weeks of school.
 
February 11th-13th, 2014. Learned a lot off that storm. Winter Storm "Pax" is what the weather channel called it. Close second would be Feb 12th, 2010. One of the few all snow events I can remember for Columbia. We were the "sweet spot" of the storm also. Jan 11th 2011 was a fun one also. Was the first time I ever heard thundersnow.

A smaller surprise event that was awesome was the convective snow band that formed in the foothills and worked it's way through the piedmont of NC and upstate of SC in mid to late Feb of 2013. I remember seeing it coming on radar and forming, so I drove up from Columbia and to Rock Hill to my dad's and got there with 30 mins to spare.

------------- said the band was dropping an inch or two of snow very quickly. The band hit with a loud clap of thunder and the grapual (however you spell that) in Rock hill. It literally covered the ground in 60 seconds... I've never seen anything like that in my life. It snowed very heavy for the next 4 hours or so and it added up to about 3.5 inches. Was well worth the drive.

A storm that was a true heartbreaker was the epic late Feb 2004 storm that dropped nearly 2 feet of snow in Rock hill, SC. Us Midlands people are always complaining about never getting snow, but that event was the most brutal cut off I've ever seen. Even worse than this years miss to the South and East in early January. Richland and Lexington county got rain and sleet for hours and hours while one county North in to Fairfield and Newberry county got half a foot of snow. The rain/snow line dipped to the Columbia and Lexington area for about 15 mins, then went back to rain. Even at a young age (6th grade) that one hit me hard...
 
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January 2000 Carolina Crusher and the Christmas 2010 storm.
 
Winter 77-78 in Fuquay Varina. Chatham County ice storm of 86-87 (everything glazed an 1nch or more...couldn't walk outside). Jan 1988 foot of pure snow in Chatham Co no mixing at all consistently fell all day). Jan 2000 in Greensboro NC (only time I got a foot of snow and felt disappointed bc my Chatham County friends got a lot more).
 
Jimmy Hypocracy said:
View attachment 9048 January 2011

Highest ratio snow I’ve ever experienced south of
85. 8” of pixie dust with .2 wraparound ZR later that night
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The NWS accumulation maps in Georgia for that snow were wrong didn’t cut the snow accumulations far enough south into Jones and Jasper county but I had 2 inches or so of snow and about the same amount accumulated on the roads didn’t go to school for like 2-3 days
 
I lived in Wilson NC from '81 to '88. I was a lot younger back then but I do remember some of these snows. My parents ran a campground off hwy 301 ( Kamper's Lodge) and was able to have a great time in them. Some fun memories from back then.

I was born in Pa outside Philly . I guess that is where I get my love of snow from tho I do not remember that much. Only some pictures and home videos my parents have with me bundle up and playing in snows as tall as I was in some instances.
 
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No doubt that the Blizzard of 1993 was an awesome storm with the thunder snow, the wind, the drifts and the accumulation. I was at my childhood home in Dallas, Georgia for the storm and we had 13" of snow with two foot drifts against our house and barn. It seemed like it snowed forever during that storm and took even longer for all the drifts to melt in the shade.

In 1997 when I was living in Louisville, Ky. and in 2009 and 2010 when I was living part time in Manhattan I saw plenty of beautiful snows but one other storm is my favorite.
nytheadline1996.PNG
"After an inch or two of snow fell in Atlanta on Sunday, a city of highways unaccustomed to extreme winter conditions became a city of slide-ways. By today, hundreds of inexperienced Southern drivers had slipped and skidded across icy and snow-covered roads and into trees, retaining walls and each other."

I was living on Ponce de Leon Avenue in the old Ford Factory building for this storm in 1996. Nowadays, the Old Fourth Ward and Poncey-Highland are desirable areas but in 1996 well, it was much more sketchy but certainly more fun and laid back then. Anyway...

It was not the biggest snow but still enough to shut the city down and turn everything into a winter playground for my friends and my early 20s self and that's why it is probably my favorite snow. I lied and said I couldn't make it to work (I could have walked there) over at Turner on Techwood and we were off to play in the snow.

We walked bundled up in those awful 90s leather bomber jackets that were popular then from the old Masquerade over to Piedmont Park on the old railroad line that still had rails then and what today is the Beltline full of bikes and joggers.

The park was full of people sledding down Oak Hill and it wasn't long before the inch or two of snow was worn away down to the brown dead grass not that anyone cared. Good times were to be had in a very different time and city in the snow.

Nostalgia it might be, but that small storm in 1996 is my favorite.
 
I think I'll list my top 3:
1. January 16, 2018 - This setup was about as good as it gets down here. An arctic front pushing down, caught up to the post frontal moisture, changing the rain over to snow by late afternoon. Temps fell BELOW freezing around noon and continued falling as the changeover occurred. A layer of ice solidified on the ground and roads and then snow came on top, blowing in as it came down. Only an inch or so fell, but it did stick. The skies cleared around midnight, and with the snowpack, temps fell to 13 IMBY (that's very unusual down here). The little bit of snow was a ton of fun to slide around in though!
2. December 11, 2008 - This one is the heaviest snow I can remember. The Baton Rouge area picked up 4-8 inches of heavy wet snow with temps very marginal, as I recall. I think this one was a vigorous ULL, but I could be mistaken. Most of the good stuff came down before 8 AM. There was even briefly some thundersnow, which I haven't witnessed before or since then! MBY saw about 5.5 inches. Up to this point I had only seen snow ONCE before, so my 17 yr old adventurous self was more than delighted to make the most out of it. Unfortunately once the rates slowed up, it changed over to a mess of sleet and rain (ugh!).
3. December 8, 2017 - After days of rain, colder air moved in, and dynamic cooling processes changed the precip to all snow by 3 AM. I went up to some family property near the MS/LA state border, south of McComb, MS and spent the night. It turned out I'd stayed in the jackpot for the area. A full five inches accumulated by late the next morning.
 
GeorgiaGirl said:
My top 5 experiences:

1. 1/28/14 - Not my biggest snow but the insanity surrounding it. (Rome, GA but my house did get 2 or 3 inches of snow out of it, and it's the last time it's seen more than a dusting, the winter storm that followed was mostly ice as I've said)
2. 2/12/10 - My biggest snow at the time. Teenage me starting a thread for a threat days in advance at the accuweather forums (soon to be defunct) and nailing it.
3. 2/25/15 - This is likely my biggest snow. This was before I left university and came back home, and I remember going out the morning after, just gazing out at the scenery, alone and enjoying it. (Rome, GA)
4. 12/25/10 - The White Christmas that ended up working out great after all. I had so much fun, but with everything surrounding it, it wasn't really that great of a Christmas. I would like to see this storm repeat itself this year, but without anything extra happening.
5. 1/10/11 - Sleet and ice fest after early snow. I didn't appreciate it as much as a teen, but I would love to have a similar storm again.
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What was your handle on accuweather? I do remember following the storms on those forums during that amazing winter of 09-10 (I was still a senior in highschool though) I was Weather4LA, until they said they were closing down the forums, which is when I found the good folks here at Southernwx.
 
Will Rossman said:
What was your handle on accuweather? I do remember following the storms on those forums during that amazing winter of 09-10 (I was still a senior in highschool though) I was Weather4LA, until they said they were closing down the forums, which is when I found the good folks here at Southernwx.
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The same as it has been on weather forums since I've started out (which is a decade as of this year in October I believe, wild). I actually think I remember that username which is crazy given how foggy my long term memory can be (which I was going to post about how funny long term memories can be in Banter before I saw this).

I hadn't posted there for years though (a lot of the old SE group had actually migrated on by 2012, and it began in 2011). I hope the forums aren't taken off the internet completely. For me it's incredible to look back there. When I was a teen, I didn't think your mentality would change much at all but boy boy boy, when I look back, I was soooo wrong.

I was shocked to learn that the forum was closing back in October. Just in case they are taking it off, I gotta go there someday and look at old posts one more time for old time's sake before Christmas.
 
Jan 9, 2011 - snow began 9:00pm Sunday night and upon seeing the first flakes fall I immediately closed out my Word document of my 7 page paper due the next day in school that I had procrastinated on. School was out for the whole week. 8” outside my door.

Jan 28, 2014 - Probably the hysteria and insanity around this storm is why I have this one as a fave. The pictures that came out of Atlanta were a sight to behold. Never will forget this one. The modern day SnowJam
 
1993 in Alabama... I was 4 years old and wish I remembered it more, but my only memories is walking to a friends house through waist deep snow drifts because he had power(?) I guess... still haven't seen that much snow since... my weather obsession was born somewhere between Hurricane Andrew and here because I remember every big weather event since

2014 in AL/GA... this was something else, watching the chaos in Bham and Atlanta and meanwhile it was like the perfect snowstorm in East Alabama, an all day gentle snowstorm

March 2015 in Dallas... about the heaviest snow I had ever seen my first winter in Texas, didn't last long but it was amazing

2010 in AL/GA, much the same as 2014 without the chaos in the cities, nothing like a daytime snowfall

oh honorable mention has to go to seeing snow in Central Park in New York City in February in the middle of an epic torch lol, the pictures alone made this a classic, what was bizarre here was going from a Winter Wonderland in Central Park to no snow in Times Square, 20 blocks south!
 
1) March 1993 blizzard - Easy #1 choice. I was a senior in high school and took a college day to UA the Friday that the storm hit and stayed at my brother and his college roommate's house in Tuscaloosa. We put a few beers and a bottle of wine on the uncovered part of their porch in the snow. No need for coolers that weekend...lol. The lasting memory I have from that storm was realizing I may need to move my car that night as the power line above it was sagging under the weight of the ice building up on it. As I was walking out the entire sky lit up with a bluish green flash followed by a loud, but somewhat muffled rumble of thunder that lasted a good 10 seconds. The flakes were huge and coming down very hard for hours on end. Ended up with about 10 inches with 2 to 3 foot drifts in places. I remember heading home on Highway 82 in my Honda Accord that Sunday having to line up my car in the ruts of the snow to avoid bottoming out. There were cars and a few trucks buried/stranded in the medium of the highway all along the drive home. A once in a generation storm for sure

2) December 9, 2017 - I've experienced bigger snowstorms while living briefly in Colorado and on a trip to Snowshoe, West Virginia but never experienced as much snow in my hometown of Selma, AL (I wasn't in Selma for the '93 blizzard). 7 inches of snow on top of a half inch of sleet while at our hunting camp just south of Selma in early December puts it up there with some of the larger snows I experienced in Colorado and West Virginia due to the amounts, the snowfall rates, and the fact it was far and away the earliest big snowfalls I've experienced deep down into Alabama.

3) January 1982 ice storm - The first and to this day only true ice storm I ever experienced growing up in West Central Alabama. I was 7 years old at the time and we had nothing but large pine trees around our house and in that area of our neighborhood and the amount of ice caked on all the pine trees was insane. Very thick ice caked on all the pine trees weighing them down along with about 2 inches of snow on the ground. Just as memorable was how insanely cold it was. High temps during the storm and for several hours into the following day afterward struggled to get out of the low to mid 20s.

4) April 2, 1987 - Before the days we could all track winter storms on the internet on internet blogs/message boards like this and had to rely on The Weather Channel and/or local weather reports this one seemed to come out of nowhere. Went to bed with nothing on the ground and woke up with around 3 or 4 inches on the ground. I was 12 at the time and it was a school day and remember my dad waking me up and telling me to look outside. Looked out my bedroom window and was shocked at the scene. A snow day off from school in early April. To this day it's easily the latest significant snowfall I've ever experienced outside of the few months I lived in the mountains of Colorado.

5) February 2010(?) - I'm fuzzy on the exact year (it may have been much more recent ftr) but this one crushed South Alabama pretty good. We got around 4 inches in the Selma area and it was the first time I've actually deer hunted in snow. The jackpot in south Alabama was actually about an hour or hour and a half south of Selma in the Evergreen, AL where they picked up around 8 or 9 inches. My second experience with thundersnow as an intense cold core upper low crushed areas from southern Mississippi and southern Alabama all the way thru Central Georgia and into the Carolinas. I believe this was the same intense upper low that crushed areas of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina a few years ago.

Honorable mention:

January 2014(?) - Fuzzy on the exact date of this storm but I thought about putting this one much higher due to the insane amount of ice so far south. I was in Mobile, AL for this one and we picked up about 2 to 2.5 inches of a freezing rain/sleet combo that basically compacted into an almost inch thick sheet of solid ice on roads, bridges, and yards all the way down in Mobile, AL. For those in the Birmingham and Atlanta areas this was the suprise snowjam storm that was supposed to hit south of y'all but ended up creeping up there causing mass chaos with traffic jams on area highways and interstates in the Birmingham and Atlanta areas.

Feb 1994 sleet/icestorm - I was in college at the time and Tuscaloosa ended up with about 3 inches of sleet

I experienced an 18 inch storm in Colorado and a roughly 24 inch Nor' Easter in Snowshoe, WV in the mid and late 90s respectively but all the above storms topped those due to them happening so deep into the Deep South.
 
Historically, Feb 1973. (although i bet there were better ones in the 1800s and before)
My life time: Feb 2010.
 
I'd have to agree with Jon and Brick and put Jan. 2000 at the top of the list. Both the biggest surprise snowstorm and biggest snowstorm I've ever experienced. And I was in college at the time. It was a lot of fun. I'd probably put the 2010 Christmas storm 2nd, but only because it was Christmas. It wasn't a surprise, but it was nice. The Dec 2002 ice storm was the worst ice storm I've been through, so it makes the top 5. I moved all around the state growing up. There was one big storm in Asheville that I remember...sometime back in the 80s.

I got shafted here in Raleigh with the 1993 one. And I don't remember the 1996 one being all that good here either. I'm hoping a Winter 2018-2019 one makes the list. I feel like we got a shot this year, anyway.
 
Just realizing how few people from the Charlotte area are on this board...lol. Nobody's mentioned February 2004! Thought we were going to have another one this week, but not quite cold enough. 2004 certainly was. No mixing, no sleet, forecasted a week out. Started 9 am pure snow, and didn't stop till overnight the next night. 14 inches in my back yard. Just love playing in the falling snow, and watching it pile up in daylight.

The only other one that really stands out is January 88 that was mentioned. Out of school for a week and it hung around a long time. It kept refreezing on the roads making sheets of ice for sledding, good times.

December 2010 for clt was sad. 3-4 inches of slop that quickly melted. Mountains and foothills were good, we were actually skiing so yeah it was good on the drive home, but couldn't enjoy it at home.
 
I'm too young to remember much of 2004 so I don't count that.

March 2009 was a great one, I lived in NW Charlotte at the time so I think I jackpotted with six inches. I was in fourth grade and the snow stuck around for days.

February 2014, I was a freshman in high school at the time. Unfortunately because of stuff going on with an at the time sick family member I couldn't enjoy that storm as much.

January 2018 was amazing, snowed all day. And at the end of it all I saw perfect dendrites for the first time in my life.

And this past storm was awesome, as I said in the main thread. It made me love sleet.

Sent from my Z983 using Tapatalk
 
Jimmy Hypocracy said:
View attachment 9048 January 2011

Highest ratio snow I’ve ever experienced south of
85. 8” of pixie dust with .2 wraparound ZR later that night
Click to expand...

Finally folks are mentioning the 2011 storm on here. What an amazing storm and NWS said Atlanta only got 4 inches. I lived in downtown on the GSU campus at the time and it felt like a lot more snow then that. The initial frontegenetic band dumped like 2-3 inches of snow the first hour. It was crazy. The last 3 inches or so fell the rest of the storm. It literally felt like we lived in a northern city considering how long the snow was on the ground for. I personally think downtown got 5-6 inches of snow.

Look how wide spread it was too. Heavy snow from SC to MS/TN.
 
LovingGulfLows said:
Finally folks are mentioning the 2011 storm on here. What an amazing storm and NWS said Atlanta only got 4 inches. I lived in downtown on the GSU campus at the time and it felt like a lot more snow then that. The initial frontegenetic band dumped like 2-3 inches of snow the first hour. It was crazy. The last 3 inches or so fell the rest of the storm. It literally felt like we lived in a northern city considering how long the snow was on the ground for. I personally think downtown got 5-6 inches of snow.

Look how wide spread it was too. Heavy snow from SC to MS/TN.
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I remember watching The Weather Channel's coverage of this storm and Stephanie Abrams mentioned live on air there was an unofficial report of 8 inches in the downtown area, but there lies the problem it was unofficial. So whoever recorded that measurement didn't report it to the NWS to make it official.
 
My avatar photo explains it, 1993 Blizzard! I barely remember it because; I was very young at the time. However, over the years I learned more and more about the storm. It became personally, the most studied winter storm.
 
Definitely have to go with January 9-10, 2011 for the first one. It barely beats December 8, 2017 since it stuck around for just around a week and was cold all throughout that time period. That storm dropped around 8 inches here and since I was younger and in public school, they closed it for a whole week.

As mentioned, last year's storm was a close second as it didn't last on the ground for as long, and the forecast busted horribly in a good way. Instead of an inch or two we had 9" due to the deformation band that developed.

Third most notable storm was definitely the Christmas 2010 storm because it's rare to witness a white Christmas in this part of the country, and it had been 128 years since the one before that.
 
Feb 2014 or last january, Feb 2014 was a very complete storm with 5-6 inches of front end snow, 1 inch of sleet, .6 of zr, and then that amazing upper level low at the end that amounted the total snow to 9.7 inches of snow. Last January snowstorm was good because it snowed all day, started out as snow and ended as snow, ended up with 8 inches and the snow was powdery in nature
 
Hands down December 8, 2017; specifically the late afternoon/early evening hours of that day; hours of the most intense snowband I'd ever seen setup over my location. I was in total awe/shock of the constant heavy cotton balls that kept falling. Finished up with around 8" with my deepest measurement around 9.5", ill never forget that evening. I needed someone to pinch me to make sure I wasn't dreaming (that morning the forecast was for around a half inch to inch which made it that much better). Also it was the first time I had anything over half a foot since January 2011. Second is January 2011. Snowed all night with large drifts. It was topped off with some sleet and alot of freezing drizzle that kept it on the ground for a long time. Blizzard of 1993 comes in third. I was young though and not nearly as much into weather back then. I just wish that monster had occured later in my life so I could have enjoyed and followed it more closely.
 
Well I'm really going to date myself here:

January 1970
March 25th 1971 complete surprise
February 1973 - my all time favorite, and the highest snowfall accumulation ever recorded in South Carolina, and a complete surprise.
February 1979
March 1983 complete surprise
January 1988
March 1993
January 2000 complete surprise
January 2002
February 2010
January 2011
February 2014
 
tonysc said:
February 1973 - my all time favorite, and the highest snowfall accumulation ever recorded in South Carolina, and a complete surprise.
February 1979
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I was a baby during the former, and forgot to mention the latter as I do recall the February '79 storm. There was another storm that was somewhat of a two-part winter storm in January 1982. I recall it, as it was during the same time as the plane crash in the Potomac River in DC.
 
I guess blizzard of 93 was the best. There have been many in years past. Seem like we had a good snow from Dec 31 to Jan 1st in 1963/64. Anyone remember that one. I think I have my dates right. Please correct me if am wrong.
 
Being able to prove my 6th grade teacher wrong about the snowstorm in ‘88 in Huntsville was awesome. (I told her it was gonna snow and she said the weather weatherman was wrong. Under my breath I Warterboyed her and said she was wrong) We were only back at school for 1 day and then it hit that night followed my freezing rain. Missed a whole week of school. 12-25-10 was awesome too
 
GaWx said:
Mack,
That was a great storm at KATL, where there was 4” of sleet, a Tony dream!

Ironically, Jan 1988 was during a solid +NAO. And it wasn’t just a +NAO blip. Practically every day of that winter had a +NAO, including 64 straight days 12/25/87-2/26/88:

ftp://ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/cwlinks/norm.daily.nao.index.b500101.current.ascii

I’ve said in the past that a -NAO is overrated for major SE US winter storm chances, including for the Carolinas. If folks would look at the data in this link, they’d realize this. I’m not saying it hurts the chances, but I am saying that it doesn’t help all that much per looking at all major winter storms since 1950. The edge with a -NAO has been only slight at best.

Big Carolina winter storms during a solidly +NAO period:

2/1973, 2/1989, 3/1980, 3/1983, 1/1988, 3/2009, 2/2014, the 2 big snows of 1/2018

There has been a significantly greater correlation of big Carolina snowstorms with +PNA than
-NAO though not near a perfect correlation as that is not the case with any index:

ftp://ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/cwlinks/norm.daily.pna.index.b500101.current.ascii

My favorite ATL major snow actually experienced: probably snowjam 1/1982. Favorite ATL sleet: 2/1979. Favorite ATL ZRs: the back to back weekend 1/2000 storms.
SAV major snows experienced: 2/1968 and 2/1973 though I was just a kid and didn’t enjoy them as much as I would today as an adult. Favorite major SAV storm (and possibly favorite anywhere): 1/2018 hands down. This was a combo of .5” ZR and 2” of sleet and snow, the largest liquid equivalent for a winter storm there (0.75”) since 1922! And it was 100% wintry with temps under 32 the entire time.
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79 is tops for me, then the late 50's/early 60's storm we can't nail down, then the blizzard. Didn't get so much snow, but it was a white out. Can't beat a blizzard in Ga., unless it's 4 or more inches of sleet, lol. Then 82, and the 10 3/4's of March snow down here in the 90's. And the 88 sleet storm down here. Yep, you can count the really goods ones in a life, on one hand in the south, lol. Maybe two if you live during the right stretch :)
 
‘93 was great too. Leaving the school is was pouring down rain. By the time I reached home 10 minutes later it was blizzard like conditions. When it ended we had 13 inches. We missed a whole week of school and played a baseball game the following Saturday with a snow bank as a warning track. Good times.
 
'93 of course all time #1, lived near BHM at the time. #2 was 2009 Christmas Eve when we lived in Texas. Had a "blizzard warning" all afternoon that day with winds gusting to 50 and snow blowing/falling heavily into early evening. Only ended up with 4" I think, but easily the most memorable because of it being Christmas Eve.
 
I was a college student at UGA during the March 1, 2009 ULL storm and it remains one of my favorite to this day. However, my all time favorite remains December 23, 1993 (AKA: "the other 93" storm in GA). I was in kindergarten and and developed a fascination with weather after the event that was only cemented a few years later whenever Hurricane Opal occurred.
 
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