The year was 1978. It was a chilly January morning, and Hoosiers (along with every other resident of the Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes regions) were expecting snow. A lot of snow. Needless to say… they got it. Over the next 48 hours, a snowstorm unlike anything Indiana had ever seen before would grind the entire state, as well as the whole region, to a complete halt.
Writer’s Note: Some photographs used in this article are from other states also affected by this historic event; every photo is, however, from this very storm.
On the afternoon of January 25th, the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the entire state of Indiana for the first time in history.
NOAA Central Library/Wikimedia Two different weather systems had collided, and the result was a very strong region of low pressure, which intensified incredibly quickly. Within just a few hours, Indiana and the surrounding states would be buried in snow.
A process called “explosive cyclogenesis” was underway, which is defined as a time in which the barometric pressure drops at a rate of about 1mb/hour over 24 hours. This storm, however, produced a drop which was twice as fast, for a total of a mind-blowing 40mb in 24 hours.
By dawn on January 26th, all frozen hell had broken loose.
Kenton County Public Library/Weather.gov Winds reached a sustained speed of 50 miles per hour in several areas, and temperatures dropped to a frigid zero degrees Fahrenheit. With the combined wind chill, however, temps plunged to an impossible -50 degrees.
Within just a few hours, cars were buried beneath several feet of snow — both ones which were parked, and ones unfortunate enough to have been caught out on the highway for the worst of the storm.
Wright State University/Weather,gov The National Guard was deployed onto the I-65 to assist with removing stranded semi-trucks from the highway.
They used tanks to do the job.
Kenton County Public Library/Weather.gov At the National Weather Service office in Indianapolis, meteorologists were snowed in for 74 hours. Some recall trying to get sleep on the office floors, or on stacked up boxes of printer paper.
The disaster wasn’t without its occasional silver linings, though — for example, Indiana and Ohio residents had a ball doing things like sledding from their second-story windows or roofs and building enormous igloos.
Wright State University/Weather.gov A newspaper in Franklin, Indiana, printed their papers on pink parchment, so they could be found in the heaps of thick powder. In total, the most significant snowfall lasted for 31 hours at the Indianapolis airport. The storm was one for the record books in several significant ways.
The storm resulted in some of the most extreme pressure drops ever measured in the mainland United States without the presence of a hurricane.
Kenton County Public Library/Weather.gov Barometric pressure dropped to as low as 955.5 mb in parts of Michigan and similarly record-setting barometric lows occurred around Ohio. Meanwhile, in Indiana, towns such as South Bend saw nearly four feet of snowfall in total, including wind-whipped snowdrifts that measured up to 20 feet high, all but burying some homes and businesses.
By the time the blizzard was over, 11 Hoosiers had lost their lives in a combination of car accidents resulting from icy roads, and simply via exposure to the extreme temperatures and high winds.
Kenton County Public Library/Weather.gov Even still, though, the fighting spirit of Indiana persisted. More than 300 strangers stranded together at the Indianapolis airport reported that they “were like one big, happy family,” and many more uplifting stories of beautiful humanity arose from folks simply doing their best helping other folks through the ordeal.
In the decades since the Great Blizzard of 1978, there has been next to no comparative events. The storm was greatly significant not just for Indiana but for all the states affected by the historic tempest — it is remembered year to year by survivors and those fascinated by weather alike. We hope we won’t see anything quite like it again any time soon.
NOAA Central Library/Wikimedia
Two different weather systems had collided, and the result was a very strong region of low pressure, which intensified incredibly quickly. Within just a few hours, Indiana and the surrounding states would be buried in snow.
A process called “explosive cyclogenesis” was underway, which is defined as a time in which the barometric pressure drops at a rate of about 1mb/hour over 24 hours. This storm, however, produced a drop which was twice as fast, for a total of a mind-blowing 40mb in 24 hours.
Kenton County Public Library/Weather.gov
Winds reached a sustained speed of 50 miles per hour in several areas, and temperatures dropped to a frigid zero degrees Fahrenheit. With the combined wind chill, however, temps plunged to an impossible -50 degrees.
Wright State University/Weather,gov
The National Guard was deployed onto the I-65 to assist with removing stranded semi-trucks from the highway.
At the National Weather Service office in Indianapolis, meteorologists were snowed in for 74 hours. Some recall trying to get sleep on the office floors, or on stacked up boxes of printer paper.
Wright State University/Weather.gov
A newspaper in Franklin, Indiana, printed their papers on pink parchment, so they could be found in the heaps of thick powder. In total, the most significant snowfall lasted for 31 hours at the Indianapolis airport. The storm was one for the record books in several significant ways.
Barometric pressure dropped to as low as 955.5 mb in parts of Michigan and similarly record-setting barometric lows occurred around Ohio. Meanwhile, in Indiana, towns such as South Bend saw nearly four feet of snowfall in total, including wind-whipped snowdrifts that measured up to 20 feet high, all but burying some homes and businesses.
Even still, though, the fighting spirit of Indiana persisted. More than 300 strangers stranded together at the Indianapolis airport reported that they “were like one big, happy family,” and many more uplifting stories of beautiful humanity arose from folks simply doing their best helping other folks through the ordeal.
Were you caught in this incredible blizzard? What was your experience like? Tell us about it in the comments below!
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Address: Indiana, USA
