What was your most Intense Moments during a Winter Storm?

[Stephen Levine]

Deep within the heart of our biggest - or not so biggest winter storms, I suspect that many of us had some extremely intense moments.. filled with feelings of one sort or another as we interfaced with our turbulent environment.

Last year, we had the post on our biggest winter storm we have seen.. this one covers the most intense moments we have experienced within a winter storm - or more than one for that matter.

Here is a list of mine, though more may come to mind later..

* Springfield Ohio, Blizzard on January 1978: Waking up at 2 am after a late evening of turbulent dreams to hear windows rattling and the ceiling creaking as winds gusting to 70 MPH filled the night with snow. I feel feelings of awe, excitement and fear as I wonder if the roof will hold out.. looking out the window, I gaze with shock and awe at smoke- like snow flying sideways through bobbing streetlights.

* Springfield, Ohio.. a winter's night in the late 70's: As I walk in a shower of snow, suddenly the entire night turns brilliant white.. instinctively I hit the ground and wait for more, my heart pounding.. a few moments later, rolls of thunder slither across the sky.

* Boston Area, April 1983 - Blizzard.. It's afternoon and the full force of the storm has now settled in. Winds and thick snow blowing almost sideways pepper my face and sneak down my neck despite a scarf and heavy winter cap.
I can only see several yards in front of me, and my whole world is cast into a pall of grayish white. Every couple minutes or less, loud rolls of thunder emanate forth, but I cannot see any lightning flashes. I feel complete awe and wonder at this juxtaposition of energies.

* Boston Area, December 1980 Snowstorm: It's midnight and I just returned home from a party. Already a good 6" has fallen here in the Newton area. Snow tapers off and as I look outside my front door, beautiful electric blue light suddenly ripples across the sky. "Lightning! Wow!" I think to myself. Very soft thunder eventually responds..During those moments I feel total awe and childlike wonder. Another two or three of these manifest, then snow begins once again.

* Springfield, OH: January 1977, mostly fallen snow blizzard.. Here I feel lonely and cold.. as arctic front rushes through an already arctic air mass -covered back yard, my windows filled with hoar frost. It's late morning, and through holes in the hoar frost, blueness emanates from thin clouds and near zero visibility caused by blowing snow.

* Just West of Boston, early 1980's: Four inches of snow have fallen this afternoon, and nobody salted or cleared the highways. Spinning tires have turned the beltway into a sheet of ice. In front of me, cars keep fishtailing with every subtle tap on the gas pedal or brake. As I gently apply my brake to avoid crashing into the car in front of me, my car involuntarily turns sideways and straddles two lanes of oncoming traffic, with my door being the side facing the oncoming cars.. Sheer terror fills my heart, as cars heading towards me at significant speeds swerve to avoid my door, fishtailing and narrowly missing me as I try to point my car straight again.. it takes tortuously long, but by miracle it's done with no incident. For sure, my Angels must have been with me. I continue on to my client meeting, still shaken until well into the session.

* Pittsburgh, PA: Late February 1967: As I sit in my Highschool library with the rest of my class supposedly doing school assignments, I can't help but notice that everything has turned greenish outside and dusk-like shadows have descended, thick with blasts of wind and a tremendous squall of snow that has cut visibility to about 1/10 mile or less. Occasional flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder fill the air. Oh how I wish I could just get up from my seat to watch this most unusual event. Of course here I felt both awe and frustration.

* Athens, OH; early April, 1973: During last night's golden sunset with 55 degree temps, I could feel impending snow in the wind.. the Weather Service has a forecast of rain for tomorrow morning, yet somehow within my I know they will be wrong..
The next morning comes and I marvel to a magical world. Four inches of snow covers dogwood flowers, baby green leaves and other blossoms.. and with beauty it still falls.. While savoring this beauty, I also give honor to my intuition winning out over the weathermen's logic.

I look forward to reading your moments..

 

[jpersonette]

Back in the 70's, I was coaching H.S. swimming. We were heading home on a school bus down in a river valley. When we came up out of the valley, we hit a ground blizzard.
We could not see the hood of the bus. The swimmers were enjoying themselves in the back of the bus and all of the windows were frosted over so they could not tell what was going on. The sky overhead was clear but the snow was blowing hard along the ground. I had to sit down by the entrance to the bus with the door open and direct the driver by looking down at the edge of the road-when I could see it. It was a long trip home!

 

[Marcus Diaz]

Earlier this year in late January we had a blizzard that shut down Amarillo. That also meant the mall was closed down, but they were blading the road all the way around the mall. So this meant there was a solid, flat coat of snow packed down. I got in my AWD Mazdaspeed 6 and drifted around the mall. It was fun, no traffic, no people. The curbs had been packed with snow too so if I started sliding off I'd just softly bump off of them.

 

[Chad Berryhill]

Every time I have to get behind the wheel....Most people around here can not drive in the snow, talk about intense.

 

[Bryan_Knitter]

Every time I have to get behind the wheel....Most people around here can not drive in the snow, talk about intense.

Same here Chad. Although you would think being in WI that people would be used to it by now...nope

 

[Dann Cianca]

Ground blizzard near Chugwater, Wyoming in 2006.

I was northbound on I-25, going about 50mph with variable visibility as the 30-40kt westerly winds easily picked up the snow. I saw brake-lights in the right lane 100 yards ahead or so, so I let up a bit and move to the left. Unfortunately, I did not see the snow plow stopped in the left lane ahead of me as its lights were not on! (the plow was preparing to turn left at one of those emergency vehicles only spots). I tapped the brakes and felt my car begin to slide. I knew I was in trouble. Since I had front wheel drive at the time, my instinct was to get back on the gas. Unfortunately, I knew I would get to the snow plow at the same moment as the vehicle in the right lane. So, I aimed to split the gap and kept my car under control by feathering the throttle.

Miraculously, I somehow passed between the two vehicles with what could only be inches to spare. At the moment of transit, I could remember the plow on the front of the snow plow missing my left side view mirror by a hair and with a quick look to the other side, seeing the panicked faces of the driver and passenger of the car to my right.

After that, I slowed down a little, though the theme from the Asteroid Field in the Empire Strikes Back, was pounding through my adrenaline-frenzied head.

 

[B. Kendrick]

I would have to say my most intense moments came with the January 28, 2010 winter storm in the Texas Panhandle. It was really my first time out in a major snow storm so I got my crash course in winter driving. By the end of it I found myself a pro at getting myself out of a skid (the streets were pretty much empty so a great time to learn). My most scary experience came though in early March of 2010 (don't recall the date exactly) whenever I wen into a 360 skid down a road due to some patchy ice. Luckily the road was empty and I didn't put myself in a ditch. All and all though the worst blizzard conditions I have found myself in was the March 26, 2009 TX Panhandle Blizzard which featured whiteout conditions.

 

[J Tyler]

I used to live in Boston and Philadelphia, but believe it or not my most memorable happened during an insane blizzard in Oklahoma in MARCH of 2010. I'll admit, my wife and I drove up there just to play in the bad weather. We pulled a bunch of stuck people out, etc. I-35 iced over REAL bad and visibility was horrible so we were heading back home to Texas. It was midnight, driving down Interstate 35, and I *BARELY* caught a glimmer of headlights down an embankment, across about 50 yards of field and BURRIED up in the tree line. We turned around, parked and walked down there and found a lady in her car. Windshield broken out, passenger side glass broken out, and the front of her car was far enough in a creek that her floor board was under water. We got her back to our Xterra and called 911. I set out flares because it was horrible visibility, we bundled her up, and waited. And waited. ANNNNNDDDDDDD WAITED. There were so many accidents, and the roads were so bad, it took the state trooper 3 *HOURS* to show up. He wrote the report, and then told us there was a massive backlog of calls. He told me it would be a huge help if I could stay there with the lady until the tow truck arrived so he could be released to go to the next call. The lady told him she felt safe with us, so he took off. I ran out of flares after we had been there for 4 hours. The next two hours we sat there with nothing but our flashers which you couldn't see for crap. I was as far off the highway as we dared go, and was genuinely scared we were going to be hit. After 6 HOURS, the tow truck showed up. But, due to my ignorance, I didn't know that her car was so far off the highway, he couldn't reach her car anyway! He told her it would be several weeks before the ground would firm up enough for him to get a wrecker down close enough to recover her car! SO....Sitting there in Davis Oklahoma at 6:30am, we decided to just drive the poor lady to her house in Texas. We were very lucky that she didn't live too far away from our city, so we just drove her home. A very bizzare night, indeed!

 

[Karla Dorman]

Blizzard of '78, Mansfield, OH. Going to bed to rain, waking up early in the morning to a raging thunderstorm (I thought): look out of the window, it's not raining, it's SNOWING. First time I ever saw/heard thundersnow. It was AWESOME.

THE BIG DUMP, 2/11/10, DFW, TX Metro: 12.5 inches of snowfall. INCREDIBLE.

 

[Bob Hartig]

White-out conditions are fairly common here in Michigan, but for as long as I've lived and driven my car here, I've never gotten used to them. I don't think anyone ever does, not really. Driving in a bad white-out is a downright scary, white-knuckle experience. But one of them in years gone by--I don't even remember how long ago anymore--was by far my most nerve-wracking winter driving experience.

It was a gorgeous, crackling blue winter day, and I was heading down US 131 south of Three Rivers, bound for the Woodwind-Brasswind music store in South Bend, Indiana. Glancing across an open field, I saw a gray wall bearing down on me, and within half a minute, the brilliant sunshine had been swallowed up by the worst white-out I've ever experienced.

The problem with that kind of scenario is, it puts you in a complete Catch-22 situation. You can't see the car in front of you, so you have no idea how far ahead of you they are, whether 500 feet or 10 feet; or how fast they're going, or whether they've slowed to a near-stop. And you don't know who's behind you, how close that person is, and how fast he or she is driving. You can't stop and you can't go on. All you can think is, "Any time now, there'll be a massive chain pile-up."

Fortunately, no mishap occurred, and I made it down to South Bend okay. But afterwards, of course I had to drive back, and things hadn't improved any. I don't know why I chose the route I did, but I remember coming to the intersection of M-43 and M-89 and turning west onto 89 toward Plainwell. It was night by this time, and I literally could not distinguish the road. All I could see, through the blowing snow, was a single car's tail lights a quarter-mile ahead of me--and I had no idea how that person was finding his way, if indeed he was. The snow on the ground was utterly featureless, with nothing except that other car's rapidly disappearing tire tracks to let me know that I was indeed on the pavement, not heading off into a field.

I crawled along in that fashion for something like 15 of the hands-down-scariest winter miles I've ever navigated. I finally made it into Plainwell intact, after which US 131 made life a whole lot easier. I've never forgotten that day.

 

[Robert Dewey]

Around here, I would have to say January 2, 1999. We only received about 10-11 inches of snow (compared to areas a bit further south which saw upwards of 16-18 inches... and Chicago with over 24 inches). I can't even say the wind was really all that strong, either - maybe 35-40mph tops. However, at the height of the storm there was a 1-2 hour window where the snow really came down, with isolated cracks of thunder.

Just before that, we decided to cruise around in my dad's truck. We didn't pass a single car (quite rare for an urban area), and visibility was probably 1/4 at best. We decided we'd just go to the park and back given the conditions. By the time we got to the park, visibility wasn't much beyond the hood of the truck, and it was now dark. There we sat, in the middle of the park shrouded in a sea of white, unable to tell where the parking lot ended and where the 6-8 soccer fields & 4 baseball diamonds started... or the curbs. Talk about spooky. Needless to say it took us awhile to figure it out, but we managed. What would normally be a 15 minute trip took about 45 minutes. The sounds of muffled thunder added to the dramatics.

Up north in the UP is a whole different beast. However, I've often found that the heaviest snow bands are usually pretty narrow. For me, they just don't have that same feeling of impact that a large synoptic snowstorm has, where you can drive hundreds of miles and not escape it. Don't get me wrong, I've seen them drop 18 inches overnight on several occasions, but if you drive 4-6 miles in either direction, you're pretty much in the clear.

I'd really like to witness a lake effect snowstorm near Buffalo or Watertown. Some of the numbers that come out of there - 60-70 inches over a few days - are insane. That might even be too much for me, I don't want to spend 12 hours with a shovel digging out.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

I think it was winter of 2003; I was driving overnight from north Alabama to visit my daughter and family in Ohio. I had rented a car from National, and the Chevy I left in had loud bearing noises, so I returned it and got the only other car left--a front wheel drive Chrysler 300M that was an upgrade.

I got caught in a strong snowstorm north of Nashville on I65 that slowed traffic, but didn't stop it. (There was a guy riding a BMW motorcycle, with full hard luggage pack and extra stuff bungied onto it out in that storm!)

Just south of Louisville, KY, the situation turned to icing, and as I left 65 on I265 traffic slowed to a crawl, then came to a complete stop. I couldn't see if conditions, an accident or a roadblock had caused the stop, but we sat about twenty minutes until the lanes began creeping along again.

But within about ten minutes, all traffic stopped again. After idling there for about fifteen minutes, I felt the Chrysler moving---sideways. It had started to drift right toward the shoulder, beyond which was a long, fairly steep embankment.

Beyond crediting answered prayer, I have no explanation for why it stopped, but it did. After about ten more minutes, I crept out of there and the icing was over before I reached Cincinnatti.

 

[Dave Rennie]

A midnight run a few years back when I was driving truck in a semi pulling a 53' van trailer from Billings to Great Falls, Montana, in a blizzard. Could only follow the road by the reflective posts along side the road. Trailer wanted to go visit them a couple of times. Meeting other semis resulted in driving blind for 30 seconds afterward. I would have waited until daybreak to go, but had an early morning pickup. Not a run I would like to repeat.

 

[Derek Weston]

Driving back from chasercon in a blizzard warning across I-80. Passed 100s of vehicles in the ditch.

 

[Joshua Nall]

Christmas day ice storm in 2000, one of the most extreme weather events I've experienced, certainly winter weather event. Trees were exploding, lines were arcing, transformers were blowing. The sound of breaking trees was like what I would imagine it like on the front lines of a war. Just walking out under tree canopy was risking your life. An incredible experience. I do a lot of hunting and that ice storm totally changed the forests around here. Much harder to walk anywhere because of downed trees and limbs. Most folks were without power a week or so, some much longer. But.... I had a blast. Ended up snowing 5 inches the following week end on New Years day and since I worked for a golf course at the time I was off work for about two weeks. Spend a lot of time with my family and even extended family that was visiting do to the Holidays. Just one of the things we did is hook up an aluminum boat behind my truck and pull it down the street. No one was out so you could pretty much do what you wanted. With wood heat and a large shallow well, it wasn't that bad at all... in fact it was that experience that caused me to understand that I wouldn't mind living that way. It's so easy to be a slave to the "fast paced work all the time to pay for everything" way of life.