![]() Some meteorologists called this the "Great Freeze of '83" and the worst cold weather event of the century in the United States (Mogil, Stern, and Hagan 1984). This record cold wave affected all of the continental United States except in the southwestern deserts. The coldest Christmas on record came one year after the warmest Christmas in 1982. Temperatures remained below 0 for 60 hours in some areas. Many areas experienced the coldest Christmas ever. The entire region suffered from December 22nd through the 26th as record cold temperatures persisted for several days. Kirk even remembered that every Christmas Eve service was cancelled that evening because of the extreme weather. Kirk said Mark displayed the old WSR-74C radar imagery while on the air and the entire scope was filled with green indicating a lot of snow. Kirk Lombardy, Meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Cleveland, Ohio recalled watching Mark Koontz on the air at WJW-TV 8 talking about the great Christmas blizzard. Stranded passengers had to live in the airport until flights were resumed. Cleveland Hopkins International Airport was also shut down for the duration of the storm. Spray even blew over 100 yards to the North side of the WJW TV station and accumulated ice. Spray from the large waves hitting the bank along the shoreway was deposited on the shoreway making it extremely slippery. The shoreway was shutdown due to visibilities being reduced to a 100 feet or less and drifting snow. The Lakeside Yacht Club near Burke Lakefront Airport sustained significant damage with docks ripped up by at least 12 foot waves. Mark stated the high winds and wind chill values were unreal and the city of Cleveland virtually did not exist and was shut down and became a ghost town. There was no activity on the shoreway during the blizzard. Several people suffered frostbite as air temperatures fell below zero.įormer WJW-TV 8 and WFMJ-TV 21 Meteorologist Mark Koontz reflected on this event and stated that the shoreway in Cleveland was "quite surreal". The City of Ashtabula was declared a disaster area and the National Guard was activated. Utilities were out for several hours and hundreds of residents and travelers had to go to shelter areas. Visibilities were zero for several hours and virtually all roads were closed from just east of Cleveland, Ohio to Buffalo, New York. WJET-TV 24 Meteorologist remembered the high winds and incredible snow drifts that developed from the fine snow because the air was so cold making the snow lighter. Winds of 40 to 50 mph whipped between 6 and 20 inches of new snow into 10 to 15 foot drifts. Snow fell across northern Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania on December 24th and 25th. The combination of the arctic cold temperatures and the wide open Great Lakes set the stage for the development of a Lake Effect blizzard. Historic climatology records are available for all periods.Christmas of 1983 was the coldest Christmas ever with blizzard conditions across northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania. Accumulations are predicted to be 1″ or less. The average first snow in Columbus is typically between the 2nd and 3rd week of November, so really, this year’s first snow is arriving more or less right on schedule. In 2014, the first trace of snow occurred just a few weeks after the end of summer!Īnd here are the earliest measurable snowfalls only. So the first traces of snow have occurred nearly a full month and a half prior to today’s date. Here are earliest days with snowfall of any amount. The snow only amounted to 0.1″, but it was enough to be counted as officially the earliest measurable snowfall on record. A strong cold front brought rain on the 9th that changed to snow showers during the early morning hours of the 10th. The earliest recorded measurable snowfall in Columbus occurred on October 10, 1906. So what exactly were the earliest first snows in Columbus? Some may think that it’s a bit early for this to be happening, but in fact, there have been many years with far earlier first snowfalls. The city and area may have its first accumulating snow this evening into Sunday, according to the Wilmington National Weather Service. Here we look back at the averages and the greatest extremes the holiday has ever seen.ħ. Sitting on the edge of fall and winter, it can be warm and sunny one year, and then freezing cold with snow falling the next. Thanksgiving can be a relatively volatile holiday.
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