15th Anniversary of "The Last Great Blizzard of the 20th Century"

**mtburb** · January-02-14, 09:59 PM

On or near this date exactly 15 years ago in 1999, only weeks after an unusually late first day of snow, a massive snowstorm arrived and shut Metro Detroit down for a week. Even though this storm didn't top the record books, later storms made January 1999 one of the snowiest Januaries ever in the Motor City, with a total of 27.3 inches accumulating that month.

The only memory I have left of this storm: I was still living in my first Wyandotte home and it was the middle of my senior year. I remember how long it took before everything got back to normal again with me being stuck at home in the meantime and how it took around an hour to remove all that snow from our vehicle, as well as how the storm unexpectedly extended our Christmas vacation.

Does anyone else have memories of this snowstorm?

**mikefmich** · January-02-14, 10:05 PM

I remember what was going on in my life that exact month, oddly enough. I have no memory of that particular massive one.

After a half century of them by that time, they start to kinda blur.

Though I will say others stand out from the 1970's.

**313WX** · January-02-14, 10:17 PM

The most impressive part about the 1999 Blizzard is that the Low Pressure center tracked from Evansville, IN to Grand Rapids to Alpena.

We typically don't get snowstorms with that type of storm track [[typically, we want Low Pressure centers to track over Cleveland), let alone a snowstorm as massive as the 1999 Blizzard, where 10-15" fell across the area.

And even more impressive, Toronto [[well east of us) received 16" of snow from the 1999 Blizzard.

**KJ5** · January-02-14, 10:25 PM

My 1987 Olds Cutlass got towed when they finally plowed Second. It took several days to get it back and I was pissed. Luckily for me I only lived a couple of blocks from work. I took a couple of pictures. I should try to find them.

**Gistok** · January-02-14, 11:19 PM

This was the storm that gave former Mayor Archer so much grief... a lot of Detroiters were very upset with him over the slow snow removal... especially the deep ruts in the nearly impassible residential streets.

He gave a lot of excuses... but the people wanted more....

**Hamtragedy** · January-02-14, 11:34 PM

I do recall, in that snowstorm, hearing a jet take off from city airport. I swear we could have lived next to the airport, it was that loud. And, as with most snowstorms in Hamtramck, you really don't need to steer for the rest of the month. Gettin' into the trolley tracks is another story.

I also remember gettin' into it with Thompson and getting bounced from Honest?Johns about the city not plowing streets, after it took me an hour to drive the five miles to get there.

**compn** · January-02-14, 11:49 PM

i thought this was going to be the anniversary for the 'frankenstorm' of 2012.

"Michigan was impacted by a winter storm system coming in from the west, mixing with cold air streams from the Arctic and colliding with Hurricane Sandy."

**Johnnny5** · January-03-14, 12:25 AM

I remember it pretty well as I spent most of that week with my butt glued to the seat of a plow truck. The worst part was the 24 hours straight working in one of those big office complexes along Telegraph and leaving it just as snow covered as when I arrived.

Staring out my window right now watching the trucks still cleaning up from yesterday's snow makes me glad that I don't do that anymore.

**Zacha341** · January-03-14, 12:59 AM

Oh, yes it was a pleasure. I've always been a good driver and never had trouble driving in Michigan snow then or now, but that night I tore out the under carriage of a low-profile Honda Civic out in that joy! Fortunately the car made it to corner of street and I was able to leave it and walk [[slog) on home.

Originally Posted by 313WX

The most impressive part about the 1999 Blizzard is that the Low Pressure center tracked from Evansville, IN to Grand Rapids to Alpena.

**nativegirl** · January-03-14, 07:56 AM

I was just talking to someone about that storm but had the year wrong [[ I thought it was in 19997) as it began snowing on New Year's Eve just like this storm and before u knew it was massive. Also, that storm was the first sight of snow that Michigan had in a long time due to El Nino or La Nino one of the two. Department stores weren't even stocking snow boots!

**iheartthed** · January-03-14, 08:11 AM

It was the most snow I had ever seen until the Christmas blizzard of 2010 in NYC.

**Lowell** · January-03-14, 09:10 AM

Back to today, it poses Duggan's first challenge and he has proactively jumped on it [or stepped in it - we'll see which] by going for a fact-finding ride aboard a shovel truck and setting a goal of getting 1900 miles of streets plowed in 24 hours. As mentioned above Archer stepped in it.

I'm listening to the Takeaway on WDET just now where the host questioned how Mike Doogan [sic] would get the streets plowed in a bankrupt city. The snow removal budget apparently is an independent budget.

**jackie5275** · January-03-14, 10:24 AM

I remember it well. It started snowing on NYE in late morning & kept going for something like 14-16 hrs straight. We got 10 inches of snow. I was living in Lincoln Park at the time. We and most of our neighbors had our cars off the street early based on the forecast. I had one neighbor, who had a guest, that parked on the street. This guest stayed several hours. She couldn't get out when she tried to leave. Two tow trucks got stuck trying to get her out. Finally a 3rd one got them all out. I remember it snow again another 6-7 inches 2 days later Then it snowed about another 4 inches a day & a half later. It was about a foot & a half of snow in a one week period.

**Hypestyles** · January-03-14, 11:07 AM

I'm sick of blizzards.

**dtowncitylover** · January-03-14, 12:01 PM

I remember there used to be a sturdy oak tree on the berm in front of my family's house and the snow piled so high from my dad shoveling that I created a wrap around slide around the tree. Today I'm sure it wouldn't be much fun, but back then it sure was.

**313WX** · January-03-14, 12:40 PM

Looks like another Winter Storm is coming this weekend.

6-12".

The side streets in the city are going to be a hot mess.

**aoife** · January-03-14, 12:51 PM

I had just moved to the area and was extremely pregnant. I remember not thinking it was that big of a deal [[I am from West Michigan where monumental snow dumps are pretty standard) until we realized that a snow plow had gone through the alley for the businesses we lived above and totally blocked our back gate with snow. Once my husband was able to make it out to the alley, he had to dig out the garage, which at that point was buried in a chest deep drift. There was no where to put the stuff once you shoveled it. I was convinced that I was going to go into labor and we were going to have to walk to the hospital.

It was a beautiful storm to watch though.

**mtburb** · January-04-14, 02:53 PM

Thanks for your memories, everyone. And, oddly enough, I'm typing this right as another major blizzard is about to impact Metro Detroit-Windsor. I also noticed that it may get well into the minuses by then, I even heard that it may get to -30 by Tuesday...it has never gotten that cold in Detroit since December 22, 1872, when the temperature on that date fell to -24!