42 Year Anniversary of the Blizzard of 1978

The Winter Chronicle

Local/State

Saturday, January 26, 2018 A7

The Meteorology - The Blizzard of '78

Description here.

The animation above shows the lines of equal pressure in light blue as the storm developed and evolved into an intense blizzard.

The colors in the background represent the air temperature at the surface. The reds and greens are the warmer temperatures and the blues and purples are the cold temperatures. Note how the cold air quickly fills in behind the storm system as it moves north of the area.

The yellow wind barbs represent wind direction and wind speed. The barbs at the end of the arrow are like the feathers on a hunting arrow. The arrows point in the direction the wind is traveling. Notice the strong increase in wind speed as the number of barbs on the arrow increases. A long barb represents 10 knots of wind while the small barb is 5 knots. Add all of the barbs to obtain the wind speed.

There were strong winds aloft at about 5000 feet above the surface that were around 80 knots. The cold air allowed the higher winds aloft to transfer down to the surface. Hence, wind gusts to between 80 and 100 mph that occurred across the region with the storm.

The animation above is courtesy of Bob Rozumalski

and Daniel Leins.

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