The 'Big One' may be on the way....

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,143
Coastal NJ
I dunno folks—with the track record of modern-day meteorologists, I think this forecast is just a “snow job”!!! :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Best regards,
Jerseyman

This guy has a very good track record so far. But even so, isn't HOPE the 'in' thing this year :rolleyes:
 

long-a-coming

Explorer
Mar 28, 2005
778
14
50
Berlin Twp
I'd like some snow but also remember the '93 mess. I was living in Newark, DE attending Winter Session at U of D. Basically slipping and sliding all over the place. The ice stuck around for months it was nuts!

It does look like a nice winter for winter sports enthusiasts!
 

tom m

Explorer
Jan 9, 2006
271
0
Hammonton,NJ.
Only problem with snow in Jersey is that a lot of people seem to forget common sense when it snows,10 inches in the Poconos is a school day , 2 inches in jersey is devastation! OMG ! WERE GETTING 2-3 INCHES??????? EMPTY THE STORE SHELVES OMG! OMG! AHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!
 

Boyd

Administrator
Staff member
Site Administrator
Jul 31, 2004
9,549
2,808
Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
When was the '93 storm? I moved into the area in July 1993 and was living in West Chester PA. During January 1994 it got really cold and we had one ice storm after another. It got so bad that Pennsylvania used up their entire supply of road salt by February and were unable to purchase more because of the bad weather in the Northeast. The Delaware river also froze that winter and barges couldn't get through with heating oil.

It was really ridiculous... no salt so they pretty much gave up and said we were on our own! I will never forget that because I was commuting between West Chester, Downtown Philadelphia and Mt. Laurel. It was a little warmer in Mt. Laurel so the ice storms were just rain storms... and New Jersey still had salt anyway. But what a disaster in Pennsylvania. As soon as spring came I moved to NJ and have never regretted it.

Then a couple years later - '95 or '96? - we had a huge snowstorm in South Jersey and Philadelphia which dumped over 30" IIRC. That really shut everything down and they didn't clear out the neighborhood streets in Philadelphia until the spring thaw.

I really have no desire to repeat either of those winters - if I want to look at "pretty snow" I will take a drive north :)
 

tom m

Explorer
Jan 9, 2006
271
0
Hammonton,NJ.
Was it 95 or 96? I seem to remember plowing for 36 straight hours in 99 or 00 in that vicinity and we had about 30 inches then.In the Early 80's I worked for Hershey ice Cream in Hammonton and we had a storm where they closed down the Bridges right after I made it back across
 

kingofthepines

Explorer
Sep 10, 2003
268
7
the final outpost
It was January 7-8 '96. My wife was due with our daughter. When the neighbors saw the two of us shoveling like a mofo towards the main road they all jumped in. The idea of giving birth at the house was a real possibility. I was finally able to bribe a fire truck to drop his plow and make a single pass for $40.00. Fortunately the baby was 20 days late. Haven't really liked snow since. And January of '94 is correct about the ice storms. For a two week period we had one every three days. It was misery.
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,143
Coastal NJ
The Big One's I can recall;

Blizzard of '78, Feb 6-7, the entire shore was shutdown, cars abandoned all over. My first son was 10 months old. 18" in Toms River.

Presidents Day storm of '79, a repeat of the year before but heavier snow, around 20" in Toms River.

Ice storm of '94, early January

Blizzard of '93, mid-March around 1 1/2 feet in Toms River

Blizzard of '96, early January, around 1 foot in Toms River

Blizzard of '03, lasted 5 days, some areas got 30 "

Blizzard of '06, 2/11, NY got 27 ", an all time record

I recall other heavy snow storms, but nothing else classified as a blizzard.

A link to some of the later storm records.

http://www.njfreeways.com/weather/
 

Sue Gremlin

Piney
Sep 13, 2005
1,279
236
61
Vicksburg, Michigan
It was January 7-8 '96. My wife was due with our daughter. When the neighbors saw the two of us shoveling like a mofo towards the main road they all jumped in. The idea of giving birth at the house was a real possibility. I was finally able to bribe a fire truck to drop his plow and make a single pass for $40.00. Fortunately the baby was 20 days late. Haven't really liked snow since. And January of '94 is correct about the ice storms. For a two week period we had one every three days. It was misery.
My good friend had her baby in that storm.
 

LARGO

Piney
Sep 7, 2005
1,552
132
53
Pestletown
Ice storm,

I can remember leaving the night of the big one, and the ice had started doing it's thing. Took the Fleming from route 30 to 73 in Winslow to head South by taking the expressway. I tried to stop at the light by Mr. Bill's and the truck just kept on a going, whilst having a trailor and boat in tow. That, was not...cool. I felt like I was just one step ahead of the nasty bastard yet it was trying to stop me from getting to a favored place I called second home way back when. Quite a far ways from Waterford.
I headed South. When I stopped over in Santee South Carolina, just after crossing majestic Lake Marion, to rest and watched the news, it was cold unlike they cared for down there but fine by me. I recall I had a wonderful steak at Jake's Steaks and enjoyed a drink with the owner, Bob Finney, a tradition for me by that time. You all up here was havin' a damned nasty time. My mom and dad when I called just told me it was bad, getting worse, just keep going South and enjoy myself.
Next day the news still told of Northern nastiness as I passed through Georgia and upper Florida. Still felt cold to the touch on the window when I crossed that border. Not quite there yet I thought.
(long damned state from top to bottom if you've ever done the drive)
I remember the melancholy feeling I got traveling the beltway looking across at a Dade County region still not quite recovered from it's leveling by yet another of nature's rants back in the '90s. Looked like a weapon of mass destruction had wiped the land clean and only streets and foundations, slabs, no basements folks, remained as far as the eye could see.
Friends, the veil of madness just lifts off when you cross the causeway and just have to stop, have to, in Key Largo to walk down to lagoon behind the Holiday inn to see the "African Queen". That vision of loveliness was what sealed my fate so to speak so long ago. Another time, another life.
I continued down to my place on Kyle Way West, on Knights Key, at the base of the Seven Mile Bridge in sunny Marathon FLA, and I was home.
I got out of the truck and the "little round man" as all the neighbors called him, (He being from Tuckerton, we was right at home together) was working on his latest hot rod, a chopped and converted 1940's Ford Ice Cream truck complete with big block and cool new paint job.Every year he had something different.
He was changing out the gears in the Ford Nine inch rear and cussin' the axle that wouldn't pull out. So I shut the truck off and after a two day ride, escaping the Ice Storm from Hell, I lay down on the ground coral driveway helping him line the axle up, to settle the rear, I looked over at the brilliant red blooms all along my friend's starewell and the colorful trees. The wind was warm and kissed me under the truck, and in Jersey it was Hell.
I was not even unpacked, I was no longer tired, I was enjoying my friend and his task on the truck. His wife was walking us out a cold one. Fresh Yellowtail on the grill would come later.
That was my Ice Storm, and it was good.

g.
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,143
Coastal NJ
Ice storm

My best recollection is of the ice storm of 98 which was not here at home but up north in Canada; they were without power for close to a month in frigid temps, an army of power crews, some from as far as Florida, worked on repairing it. I traveled to Montreal that June and north of Plattsburgh NY, all the treetops were gone, as if a giant lawnmower had come thru. Lots of cheap firewood that year.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/btv/events/IceStorm1998/ice98.shtml
 

andy1015

Explorer
May 4, 2007
234
1
41
I was stealth camping in the pine barrens in the blizzard of 93. All the trees had so much snow on them that you had to get out and shake the trees so they would pop up, and repeat every 50 yards. I remember being so sick the next day. I was with my friend and dad. I was 11 at the time. But it worked out.
 

imkms

Explorer
Feb 18, 2008
587
224
SJ and SW FL
I spent the blizzard of 06 in a lean-to at Bass River. No real problem, I arrived the day before it started and I had plenty of food and drink and also loaded up my pickup with lots of firewood to keep warm, so I just sat it out for two days. I was the only person in Bass River for that trip and it was quite enjoyable.
 
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