Upcoming Weather and a look back at the Blizzard of 1978

The upcoming week will feature a variety of weather patterns. Most notable will be the warm, wet, and windy start to the work week. Temperatures will be above normal with mid to upper 40's for Monday and Tuesday. Accompanying that will windy conditions along with moderate rain on Monday night and Tuesday. Some thunderstorms could also be associated with the rain.

A drop in temperatures Tuesday evening will turn the remaining moisture into a light snow. After a couple more seasonal days, we need to turn our attention to Friday and Saturday where we could see either a heavy snow (6-10") or severe thunderstorms.

The Blizzard of 1978

What a memory for everyone who was around at that time. There are many great stories being told. Mine is rather tame in general. I was a senior and living in Frankfort. I did a lot of shoveling of our drive and many city fire hydrants and followed that up with some sledding behind a car. (Yes, dangerous to say the least.) Of course we missed a week of school. Much less time off than the 3 county schools.

The snowfall recorded was heavy for our area but not really noteworthy with 12-15" recorded centrally and 24-36" in the northern portions of Indiana. Of course that was followed with 24+ hours of 50 MPH winds and zero temperatures. Drifts ranged from 3' in town to 20' in the country. At that time, hardly anybody in Indiana had equipment to deal with such snow. (We probably are only marginally better off today.) Clearing the roads and streets took forever with what equipment was available.

Food and other items hard to find as trucks making deliveries couldn't get through. I think this was the start of the phenomenon where people rush to buy milk, eggs, and toilet paper anytime someone mentions snow.

One thing to remember between then and now however is the difference in forecasting and passing information. In 1978 the computer forecast models were still in their infancy and overall forecasting was only accurate to 24-36 hours with educated guesses doubling that and wild guessing was anything beyond 72 hours.

Computer models today are better with more information to work with and can do a decent job out to 4 or 5 days and still be OK out to 7 days. Long range models while not able to be as accurate with the details are good showing patterns and trends out 15 days. Even additional longer range models can go several months out predicting some basic weather patterns.

We also have global weather readings taken 4 times each day at the exact same time and can provide much more accurate data to the forecast models to begin their predictions. of course no model is perfect and it is always best a trained meteorologist review the data and tweak it accordingly.

Communications are also much better today than in 1978. People involved in public safety to energy and trucking companies have in house forecasting staff and can put manpower and equipment in places to stage for weather events. Everyone can get on the Internet and get 90% of the same data in raw or finished format and make their own forecasts or read what others have to say about upcoming events.

In the end, it is possible that we could see another storm like the Blizzard of 1978 or then again, we might not see it in our lifetimes. For me, I am hopeful we see some good snows but not at the cost of human life.

There are many excellent articles anniversary articles including personal accounts published recently. Please take some time to relive the memories.

Kokomo Tribune Photo Essay
NWS Indianapolis
NWS Northern Indiana
Channel 8
A Collection for Blizzard of 78 Websites