Picture of the Day 3/13/09 and Blog-Remembering: The Blizzard of March 1993

[MikeF9]

Picture of the Day March 13, 2009

Demolition of Steeple Market is underway

REMEMBERING: THE BLIZZARD OF MARCH 1993
Originally posted on my MyWeatherLive site
http://www.myweatherlive.com/MikeCainF9
Weather forecasting can be a funny thing. You look at all the models, the computer spits out all the scenarios, and then Mother Nature goes and does something unexpected. The TV meteorologists are left standing with their arms raised in a shrug, and say, "Um, we didn't expect it to do that.".

However, in the second week of March 1993, the meteorologists got it right. They nailed this one on the head.
Early in the week, they were talking about a storm that could affect the East Coast for the coming weekend. It was going to start in a certain location, take a certain path, and these areas will get this much snow.

On Friday March 12th, the National Weather Service began running broadcasts about the blizzard warning. They warned of blowing snow, and possibly 1-2 feet of snow. Warnings were on TV and radio. "This is not a test. This is a warning!"
 It was slated to start snowing around 1:30pm Saturday March 13th. The snow would be the heaviest between 5 and 7pm that day. Then the wind was going to start blowing. It would blow all night Saturday night and all day Sunday.
People listened. And got prepared, stocking up on the essentials for the weekend.
Milk and bread flew off the shelves at the grocery stores here in Fairfax. (We did not then, nor do we now, have a supermarket here.) 
Fairfax Pharmacy reported heavy sales in prescriptions, books, coloring books, and first aid kits.
J&L Hardware, sold 100 packs of batteries Friday and Saturday. Coleman fuel, candles, kerosene, and lamp oil were all in demand.
From 10am(when they opened) to 2:30pm, Family Video rented out 951 movies.
It started snowing around 1:30pm. The heaviest was from 5-7pm. The wind blew. We ended up with about 2 feet of snow. People stayed home.
School was postponed Monday to allow for clean up. Teachers had an inservice day instead.
This was the biggest snowstorm Vermont had seen in 100 years.
The entire East Coast got hit. The NASCAR Winston Cup race in Atlanta, GA was postponed.............because of snow.
Funny thing..................a couple of weeks later, the snow was all gone because the temperatures moderated.
In Vermont, March can be it's own season sometimes.

[Henry]

Great Information Mike - Maryann or I have absolutely no recollection of that Blizzard, of course we were both retired at the time, so if we would of had to go in to work would probably have remembered it more.

Haven't had a chance to check with my sister yet, but I know for years she kept a diary of the weather day by day.  Wonder if we have anyone with some photos of what happened here in town.  The biggest snow storm I ever remember was back in the early 1970s.  I remember using my dad's little cub tractor with the snow plow on it and plowing both our driveways at least 4 times that day.

If anybody happens to have a photo of the Blizzard of 1993, would love to scan it and put it up.

[dearon]

I remember this blizzard.  We lived on Dee Rd., in Georgia and were snowed in for several days.  Had to hire a bucket loader to get us out as our plow truck wouldn't even touch it.  We stayed up all hours of the night trying to keep up with it and couldn't.  Not one I'll forget.

[Margie]

I was in Connecticut for the All New England Music Festival during the blizzard.  We had the concert at the Navel base - the base was closing so the afternoon concert got moved up by an hour and the evening concert was cancelled.  Some of my students parents did make it, but on student was on her own.  She ended up staying with me at the hotel.  Dick Brown was principal at the time and called me to tell me to stay where I was as there was no way I was going to make it back to Fairfax on Sunday.  I couldn't understand why, as down on the coast we had some snow, but the weather had cleared and it was a gorgeous day on Sunday.  There wasn't much snow down there.  However, some of the other teachers had heard the interstate had been closed and such.  As I drove back on Monday, Johanna (my student) and I were continually shocked by the increasing snow amounts the further north we went.  When we got up here and saw the mountains of snow banks, it was almost creepy. 

[katrinaantonovich]

I was just finishing spring break in Daytona and was driving north - we knew when we hit Jacksonville, FL at it was there were flurries it was going to be interesting - we had done the trip down in 18 hours just stopping to take turns driving, but the way home took almost 4 days - we finally got to penn. and they told us the state was closed! we had to wait another day to get in!

[mkr]

I had a dentist appointment in St. Albans and my car '92 Duster couldn't stop and at 9 mph I coasted into the SUV in front of me.  My car crumbled in front of me and no damage to other vehicle.  The police came said it was due to the roads and went on his way as he had more important accidents to go to.  I ended up trading that car in for a 4WD Sidekick after that and haven't not had a 4-wheel drive vehicle in my yard to drive since.