In Columbus the big question was whether or not the Ohio State Michigan would be played. 82,000 tickets were sold for a 78,000 seat stadium. A big ten conference game had never been cancelled before and even the blizzard wouldn’t cancel this one. There were forty seven punts in the game. Ten inches had fallen by evening in Columbus. There were many times when the players in this conference title game could not be seen from the press box. Most of the toilets in the upper sections of the stadium were frozen as the temperature approached zero by evening. Michigan was a big underdog coming into the game but bad weather can be a big equalizer. Michigan won Nine to three. Michigan won without getting a first down in the entire game. The game was called the “Blizzard Bowl”.

This is why hurricane season continues through the end of November. Hurricane season begins June 1 and it takes much of the summer with the sun heating the ocean before the hurricane season gets active in late August into September. While it takes most of the summer for the ocean to heat up; it stays milder longer into the fall even when temperatures across the United States turn cooler and more fall-like.  

 

Although, we average almost an inch of snow during the month of November, it remains a rare occurrence.  However, on this date in 1989, 1.6” fell at National Airport and 2.2” fell at Dulles Airport, which led to an exceptional rare “white” Thanksgiving.  In fact, 1989 saw both a white Thanksgiving and a white Christmas for the first time in over one hundred years.

 

In addition to winter storms the Thanksgiving holiday has also produced, though, rarely, tornado outbreaks. In 1992 there was a severe weather outbreak including 95 confirmed tornadoes between November 21 – 23 from Texas northeastward into the Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic. One of the 95 tornadoes was a weak F1 (73 – 112 mph) that struck Hillcrest Heights in Prince Georges County, MD.

 

                    First snow 3”/+            Total Seasonal Snow (Downtown)                 Notes

 

Howard:       December, 28               15” – 20”   (Avg: 15.4”)

 

Eric:             January, 4                       14” – 18”

 

Topper:       December, 12                 10” – 15”                                                       1 Ice Storm

 

Thunder snow occurred east of town and some of the suburbs in Prince Georges County received fourteen inches. It’s not too often when the heaviest band of snow is east of town. It snowed all day as far south as Greensboro, North Carolina producing a covering on the grass.   This snowstorm is commonly referred to as the “Veteran’s Day Snowstorm.”

That’s just an easy to remember name given to an early season “Nor’Easter.” Making this snow especially tricky to deal with across the region was the fact that it occurred in the first half of November when some leaves were still on the trees and those leaves that had already fallen had not yet been cleared.

 

It does not take much wintry precipitation to wreak havoc across the DC Metro area, but taking a considerable amount of snow – as this storm brought – and adding on top of it falling leaves, that created exceptionally treacherous travel conditions. Getting snow in November is rare, but not unheard of. National and Dulles Airports both average around an inch of snow in a typical November – making the “Veteran’s Day” storm totals one for the record books.

Such was the scenario on this date in 1975 when an intense storm raged over Lake Superior. Another 'Freshwater Fury' on Lake Superior sank the ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald with a loss of 29. The carrier was 729 feet long and was first commissioned in 1958. She was loaded with twenty six thousand tons of iron ore pellets. Winds gusted to 71 mph at Sault Ste Marie and 78 mph at Grand Rapids. Unlike tropical cyclones, non-tropical storms such as this ‘Freshwater Fury’ storm – also referred to as the “Edmund Fitzgerald Storm” – and “Nor’Easters” are not given names.

 

You might remember the song ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot. ‘When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'. Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya. At Seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in, he said Fellas, it's been good t'know ya ‘

Sometime storms in fall and winter are given nicknames such as “The Perfect Storm” in October 1991 or the “Superstorm of 1993.” Sometimes we will name big storms on air. We called the 2003 blizzard the ‘Big Dawg’ storm. Other times, if a notable storm occurs on a certain holiday it can pick up a name from that day. We have had the Presidents Day blizzard in ’79 and again in ’03 (the Big Dawg.) Tomorrow I will describe another, memorable storm that longtime Washingtonians will remember and snowbirds like myself remember fondly!