Blizzard shuts down Columbus region, Jan. 26, 1978
Editor’s note
Each Sunday, The Dispatch features a front page from this week in history to celebrate the newspaper’s 150 years of publication, with a little update on what’s happened since.
Thought last week’s couple inches of snow were a pain?
While people along and southeast of Interstate 70 grappled with a glazing of ice and a few inches of snow early last week, people in Greater Columbus and throughout much of the eastern United States dealt with an inch of ice, topped with snow and blown around by 65 mph winds in January 1978.
Fingers crossed, we won’t see that anytime soon.
That’s because the middle section of the Ohio River Valley – loosely defined as Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and parts of Pennsylvania and West Virginia – is in the midst of a snowfall “donut hole,” according to the National Weather Service.
A snowfall donut hole is exactly what it sounds like: an area that hasn’t received all that snow, compared to its neighbors.
That’s because this is a La Niña year, when winter temperatures are warmer than normal in the South and cooler than normal in the North. Snow is rare, but one or two storm systems sometimes deviate from their route, according to the Weather Service.
But don’t put away those snow shovels just yet.
The 6.8 inches of snow recorded in Columbus during the 1978 storm is just tied for 20th all-time here, the Weather Service reports.
The most snow recorded in Columbus: 15.5 inches on March 8, 2008.
The second-most: 12.3 inches on April 4, 1987.
Read More: Blizzard shuts down Columbus region, Jan. 26, 1978