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The Blizzard of '78
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One very memorable event that occurred in 1978 was a snowstorm that dumped 3 feet of snow on Boston in 36 hours. This storm, which spanned a
series of extremely high tides, was subsequently named the "Blizzard of '78." It totally shut down Eastern New England, and
Massachusetts went under a state of emergency for 6 days which banned all private vehicles from driving on the roads. Just about everybody
who lived through this has an interesting story, since many of us got stranded in one place or another (my boss didn't make it all the way home
from Boston and ended up spending the night in a convent). On the Monday evening of February 6th, when the storm started, I was taking the subway
from Cambridge to Boston to get home to my apartment in the Fenway. When I went down into the Central Square subway station the snow was really
coming down, which was not unusual in February in Boston, but when I came out of the station in Kenmore Square I was really surprised to see how
much snow had fallen during the time I was on the subway. I trudged through the snow to my apartment on Queensberry Street, and when I went to bed I knew we were in for a major snowstorm. My apartment lost its heat and
electricity so I  spent the next several nights wearing long-johns in a down
sleeping bag and (precariously) using my gas oven for heat. The day after the storm ended was beautiful and sunny, and all the cars that had been
parked on the streets when the storm hit were completely buried, with only their antennas sticking up through the snow. You could walk
everywhere, including in the middle of the streets normally full of whizzing cars, and across the frozen Charles River (which I recklessly did).
Most non-essential businesses in Boston were closed, and the entire week was like a holiday. The snow was being removed from the roads and it was
stashed in parking lots, which ended up having these enormous piles of snow. Route 128, a beltway going around Boston, had become a giant parking lot
full of cars stuck in the snow, many of them 4-wheel-drive vehicles blocked by other cars. It was 3 days before I could get to suburban Weymouth to see
my girlfriend Patti (who's been my wife since '79), walking much of the way. I had bought a car just before the storm, and when I went to pick it
up at the car lot after the blizzard I found the entire engine compartment packed with snow (and a very wet ignition!). One ironic twist
of this storm is that it occurred just 2 weeks after another massive storm had dumped 21 inches of snow on the city, setting a (short-lived)
24-hour snowfall record.
In 2007 I was contacted by Alan Earls, who found this page and wanted to use my photos in a book he was doing about the storm. Greater Boston's Blizzard of 1978 was published and I am given credit under each of my photos in the book. Alan interviewed me for an article which then appeared in the Hingham Journal. Cool! |
| This storm was so severe that no private vehicles were allowed on the roads and I was able to roam freely around Boston and Cambridge with my camera. Here are some of the photos I took (click to enlarge). |
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WCVB: Blizzard of '78 30th Anniversary – great videos from news archivesWCVB: A Look Back At The Blizzard of '78WCVB: Blizzard Of '78 Viewer Pictures – great slideshowBlizzard of 78 - Hull MA - Nantasket Beach – very thorough site with many stories, photos, and linksA Blizzard for the Ages – from Bostonia, the Boston University alumni magazine
The Blizzard of '78 Gallery – from the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM)The Northeast Blizzard of 1978 – includes newspaper articles, newspaper photos, & videosBlizzard of '78 in Boston – great photos
Winter's Worst Month – from Harvey Leonard, meteorologist on Boston Channel 7Relive the Blizzard of '78 – from The Providence Journal, many photosHull Lifesaving Museum – nice exhibits on the storm
"Blizzard of 78" on Google – lots of good links