I hope Abby isn't dead
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Wintry Favorite winter storms of all time
- Thread starter CyclonicFury
- Start date
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!)
RollTide18
Member
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.
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.
SnowE73
Member
Unfortunately she is...I hope Abby isn't dead
Trust me snow is not quite the same without her.Coach B
Member
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.
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.
Aww sorry to hear that, those little furry critters are a part of the familyUnfortunately she is...
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.
Brad Panovich 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...
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.
Brad Panovich 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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B
Brick Tamland
Guest
January 2000 Carolina Crusher and the Christmas 2010 storm.
Avalanche
Member
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).
EastAtlwx
Meteorologist
Round Oak Weather
Member
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.
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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Emory Briarcliff
Member
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.
"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.
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.
"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.
Philstorm91
Member
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.
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.
Philstorm91
Member
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.
GeorgiaGirl
Member
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.
mydoortotheworld
Member
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
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
Brent
Member
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!
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!
Gulf Coast Weather
Member
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.
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.
