• Hello, please take a minute to check out our awesome content, contributed by the wonderful members of our community. We hope you'll add your own thoughts and opinions by making a free account!

Misc Reminiscing Thread

1. Blizzard of 93. I was only 11 but we had 22 inches on Big Ridge in Hixson. There were 3-4 foot snow drifts at the top of the ridge that People walked through to get home. Vividly remember the lightning while it snowed.

2. 4/27/11 I believe we had 23 separate tornado warnings in Hamilton county that day with 12 being confirmed. The first lifted before going over my office on Hixson pike around 8:30. Saw shingles and other material falling out of the sky multiple times that day. I have Never seen clouds move like that. First time I have ever watched a radar and genuinely been scared from what was coming from Alabama.

3. Jan 88. I remember being able to sled with a blade runner in that storm. Believe we had 10-12 inches.

4.Jan 28/2014. How much damage can a trace of snow do when the infrastructure is cold? Caught everyone by surprise and had temps in the mid teens. Roads were awful for days.

5. Jan 10 2011. The coldest mid December through January I remember here and nothing has come close. 8.5 inches with that storm and it stuck around for a week.View attachment 146715

Yeah I was in Alabama on 4/27 and I never want to see that ever again. I mean I left 10 years ago and sometimes the news clips still bother me. We weren't even that close to any of them but just to see the scope of it

I mean I knew it was gonna be bad but nobody expected that bad
 
Born in 86 and for me, this stretch of winters is the reason I am a meteorologist today.
The whole run starting with the Jan 96 snow storm then all of the hurricanes Bertha, Fran, bonnie, floyd plus the early 2000s winter stretch is why I'm here. What a time to be a weather nerd
 
The whole run starting with the Jan 96 snow storm then all of the hurricanes Bertha, Fran, bonnie, floyd plus the early 2000s winter stretch is why I'm here. What a time to be a weather nerd
Absolutely. Jan 09 is also really special to me because it was the drought buster storm and also the last one I got to enjoy with my dad. Nothing like doing donuts on snow covered country roads with your old man. 🥺
 
Idk where to put this, maybe in a different thread, but can we talk about just the daily forecast accuracy over the past few years? Is it me or is it trending downhill? I monitor multiple sites/threads/guru's just for a daily weather report to base around my inshore fishing trips and they all can't be more wrong. Yesterday in New Bern it said a high of 54 and winds light and variable. Actual? 48 and winds out of the north east at 10-12. Not even close. Is it me or is it all in my head that things used to be better? Or am I now just more hyper aware? Grumble grumble grumble...
 
Absolutely. Jan 09 is also really special to me because it was the drought buster storm and also the last one I got to enjoy with my dad. Nothing like doing donuts on snow covered country roads with your old man. 🥺
We got the shaft in the Triad from that one. But at least March 2009 delivered!
 
Idk where to put this, maybe in a different thread, but can we talk about just the daily forecast accuracy over the past few years? Is it me or is it trending downhill? I monitor multiple sites/threads/guru's just for a daily weather report to base around my inshore fishing trips and they all can't be more wrong. Yesterday in New Bern it said a high of 54 and winds light and variable. Actual? 48 and winds out of the north east at 10-12. Not even close. Is it me or is it all in my head that things used to be better? Or am I now just more hyper aware? Grumble grumble grumble...
It’s not just you noticing this. I have as well. I mentioned this in another thread but my theory on this is that the data that’s going into these forecast models is lacking or just not entirely accurate. As more and more government agencies around the world see their budgets tighten, I think they are not getting as much human gathered raw data and depending more on other resources.
 
I honestly did not realize that GSO and RDU had no measurable snow during that period. It was a very rough stretch for CLT as well, but there were two or three times that the airport recorded .3” and .4” over those few years
We had snow in 1989 and in 1991 down here. The 1991 event was supposed to be bigger, but we never really got the rates with it. The 1989 snow came at the end of an ice event and if I remember right, it did not make it to Charlotte. Both of these events dropped less than 1 inch here but were measurable.
 
That January 1992 storm was painful to watch miss the CLT area to the south. Especially when the watching the live reports from northern AL and GA.
The 1989 miss was rough too, but I knew all along we never really had a chance with it. We were supposed to get around an inch in 1992 and saw nothing.
 
The whole run starting with the Jan 96 snow storm then all of the hurricanes Bertha, Fran, bonnie, floyd plus the early 2000s winter stretch is why I'm here. What a time to be a weather nerd
For me I guess the late 70's into the 80's did it. Lots of snow and ice and Hurricane Danny in 1985. Also, the March 1984 Carolinas tornado outbreak.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SD
We had snow in 1989 and in 1991 down here. The 1991 event was supposed to be bigger, but we never really got the rates with it. The 1989 snow came at the end of an ice event and if I remember right, it did not make it to Charlotte. Both of these events dropped less than 1 inch here but were measurable.
If you’re referring to the early December 1989 event, it did make it to CLT. Officially the airport had .4” from it, but the entire northern half of Mecklenburg and most of Cabarrus county county got 1-2”… areas further east ended up getting more. January 1991 was forecasted to give CLT 6-8” and it actually started off looking strong… there was a good burst of snow that quickly put down around .5” but then the rates slowed big time changing it to rain. the heavier precip stayed just south in the eastern Upstate… those areas ended up getting a couple inches. If it weren’t for those two events, CLT would have officially gone from 2/23/1989 to 3/13/1993 without recording measurable snow
 
For me I guess the late 70's into the 80's did it. Lots of snow and ice and Hurricane Danny in 1985. Also, the March 1984 Carolinas tornado outbreak.
For me it was the January 1988 snowstorm, the May 5, 1989 tornado outbreak and then Hurricane Hugo a few months later
 
For me it was the January 1988 snowstorm, the May 5, 1989 tornado outbreak and then Hurricane Hugo a few months later
That was a crazy stretch too, especially 1989. We had severe weather here in early April 1989 too, with Greenville SC getting hit hard. Then of course Chesnee SC and north Cleveland County on May 5. Union County NC got a strong tornado earlier that day and had another one around 7pm I think. Hugo was actually supposed to track about 20-30 miles farther west I think and be a few hours slower. He ended up giving us winds to around 50-55 in gusts, but of course Charlotte got it much worse.
 
That was a crazy stretch too, especially 1989. We had severe weather here in early April 1989 too, with Greenville SC getting hit hard. Then of course Chesnee SC and north Cleveland County on May 5. Union County NC got a strong tornado earlier that day and had another one around 7pm I think. Hugo was actually supposed to track about 20-30 miles farther west I think and be a few hours slower. He ended up giving us winds to around 50-55 in gusts, but of course Charlotte got it much worse.
I remember the first talk of a significant hit for the CLT area with Hugo was actually first mentioned by Eric Thomas on the 6am newscast on the morning of the 9/21/1989. In those days he was actually an Accuweather Meteorologist who was assigned to WBTV and they were the first to mention 60-80mph gusts for the Charlotte. Then by 6pm that evening, all the local TV mets were very direct about how strong the storm would still be because at that point it had reached category 4, it had a huge wind field, and was already moving over 20mph. No one was buying into though until the first rain bands reached CLT and were producing 50mph gusts.
 
These articles speaking of permanence seem to have one motivating factor. This particular article focuses on the northern tier of the country. I know the upper Midwest and plains haven’t done well this year, but how did they do last season? Minneapolis, for instance, had 19.3 inches in December 2022, 22 inches in January 2023, and 15.5 inches in February 2023, all well above average. After one bad season, the author tries to frighten and motivate the reader by saying “your kids may never get to build a snowman” all because the northern tier of the country was warm and dry during the strong El Niño of 23-24.
 
Well tomorrow is the 20th Anniversary of the February 2004 Snowstorm. This is still my favorite storm to experience here in the CLT area. I was off NC 200 between Concord and Midland at the time, and will never forget how the storm arrived just before 8am that morning… I literally saw a cloud of white moving towards me. The temperature crashed from the upper 30s to the upper 20s in a just a few minutes. I got to see 8” pile up during the day and then after a late afternoon lull, that upper low crawled over at just absolutely dumped with 2”/ hr rates for over 6 hours… it was complete with thunder and very bright lightning.
 
20 years ago tomorrow I got the sloppiest inch of snow in my life. The water content was so high the mud showed through. We drive up to Jasper looking for more not realizing it was better to the East. I went to class the next day at Georgia Tech and they had huge mounds of plowed snow. Very disappointing.
 
Last edited:
Well tomorrow is the 20th Anniversary of the February 2004 Snowstorm. This is still my favorite storm to experience here in the CLT area. I was off NC 200 between Concord and Midland at the time, and will never forget how the storm arrived just before 8am that morning… I literally saw a cloud of white moving towards me. The temperature crashed from the upper 30s to the upper 20s in a just a few minutes. I got to see 8” pile up during the day and then after a late afternoon lull, that upper low crawled over at just absolutely dumped with 2”/ hr rates for over 6 hours… it was complete with thunder and very bright lightning.
Best of times back in the good old days when we actually still had snowstorms more frequently. I got 9" inches out of that one. One of my top (10) of all time as well. The best memories. If we didn't have them now I don't know how we could make it through this snow drought right now.
 
Best of times back in the good old days when we actually still had snowstorms more frequently. I got 9" inches out of that one. One of my top (10) of all time as well. The best memories. If we didn't have them now I don't know how we could make it through this snow drought right now.
Yeah that capped off a pretty good 5 year stretch that started in January 2000. Interesting though that after that storm, CLT would have only 2 snowfalls of 1”+ over the next 5 years until the March 2009 storm and both of those were 1-2” storms in the morning that were mostly melted by the end of the day
 
Back
Top