Throwback: Blizzard of 1996

Your Thursday Throwback, The Blizzard of 1996.

January 6th, snow began to fall over the Mid-Atlantic. And as most east coasters know when the weatherman says a nor'easter, that is  going to be all snow, is on it's way you need to prepare for some big snow and wind. This is exactly what happen from January 6th through the 8th. This snowstorm dropped over two feet of snow in most places.



However, most nor'easter drop this much snow so why is this one remembered, because this storm had a great deal of wind associated with it. Strong wind created whiteout conditions and snow drifts as high as the first story on houses. 

This picture is from Temple Pennsylvania. I remember this storm, however, I was little. When the 1996 blizzard hit I was living in Ocean County, New Jersey. That summer is when we moved to Pennsylvania, and I remember asking my dad why Pennsylvania didn't get as much snow as New Jersey did.

I love these big storms! I love to predict them and love to watch the snow pile up.

With the end of the year coming up, I found ten weird things that happened in 2012. It will be like my own count down to the end of the year. This will start on Tuesday December 18th. Get excited!!

Throwback: 2008 MidWest Flooding

This "Thursday Throwback" is going to take us back about 4 years ago. When this country's mid section was no where near any sort of drought. A very active winter during 2007 and 2008 led the Mid West to already be above normal in terms of precipitation.  Then a very active weather pattern set up in early June creating massive amounts of rain to dump in the country's mid section. The short period of time and the quantity of rain led to tons of flash flooding and eventually massive flooding. The photo below shows the recorded rainfall from January to June. This photo was provided by the National Weather Service.



Many dams broke which led to even worst flooding and devastation throughout most of the Mid-West. This made for some concern for the people who lived down stream of all of this flooding. Many people where already taking precautions and building barriers to attempt in holding back the rising waters. This picture below is just one of the many sandbag walls created. This picture is courtesy of Fox News this photo is from June 15, 2008 in Iowa.

These floods brought massive destruction to nine states in the Heartland. 24 people died as a result of this flooding and over one hundred were injured. One positive thing was when FEMA took action, they were very efficient because the program had just been modified from the Hurricane Katrina disaster. If only they could get some of that rain now.

If you are thinking to yourself, "Man these 100 year floods are seeming to come more often!". You are not alone! Many scientists have been asking this same question. My parting thoughts for you are do you think that man is trying to control mother nature? Or do you think a changing climate is at fault? Or could it be a little of both??