Blizzard of 1978

Terre Haute rarely gets a lot of snow. In 78 we got wind along with snow. I remember shoveling snow off the south side of my roof. House was making strange sounds like was about to cave in . Wind came out of the North and the south side house had about 3 ft of snow. Snow drift along the south side of house was all the way to the roof. No way did I get 24 inches of snow, but the wind made 4-6 drifts.

We had many roofs collapse, many were either flat roofs or pole barns.

All that got me to thinking, what would happen if the south side of my roof were covered with solar collectors and then covered with all the snow. Would the snow load damage the collectors? How would I have removed all the snow. Bigger question does homeowners cover the solar collector damage from snow, hail, wind?

Anyone digging out form the blizzard have solar collectors or know anyone who does? What about roofs collapsing?

We've had snow drifts of over 3', with less than 1/2" of snow. Feels really strange when that happens.

Back in the land before time, and more specifically, before solar collectors, I was going to Washington State University, and dating a girl from eastern Washington who lived fairly nearby. We had a huge snow at the time of semester break, in January 1968. There was no way I could get home to western Washington, so she invited me to stay with her family over break. Excellent! The possibilities just boggled the mind! They were wheat farmers, and very nice folks. The next morning, Dad casually mentioned at breakfast that a bunch of his friends were going to town to shovel snow off senior citizens roofs, did I want to join them? I was a fairly bright lad, so knew the proper answer instinctively- Sure! So off we went. Kind of a fun day- guys up on roofs, working but joshing each other as well -"So, you're staying at Ginny's? I hope they're watching the halls so there's no teepee creeping"- [uproarious laughter]. The geezers tried to one-up each other with the treats- I never had so much good stuff in my life. Went back to their house that evening, and overheard her dad say to her mom, "That kid sure knows how to handle a shovel." As basic as that might be, it may have been the compliment I was proudest of.

No, the relationship never went any further (and nothing "fun" happened that week)- but it was still a great experience. She is a class person- married a guy who became disabled at a young age, she stuck with him and raised their family. Good for you, Ginny.

Thank you for sharing that very neat memory.

Great story!

In West Virginia in 1978 we had ice covering the ground followed by several inches of snow, then a foot or more of snow. 7 farmers & loggers were killed or severely injuried that winter as they tried to feed or skid the slopes. Dozers & tractors will not handle slopes under those conditions, either up & down or cross-slope. Some pickups with chains tried & failed too. One rolled over 7 times in a 300 yard stretch, injuring both occupants severely.

I remember the blizzard well. I was living near Dayton, OH at the time.

Out of 900+ people, I was the only one that showed up for work driving a 2WD 3/4 ton PU with 7.50X16 bias ply tires on split rims.

The guard told me that the place was closed and sent me home, so I drove it back home and shoveled the bed full of compacted snow that had been deposited by the plow. I think it finally melted out sometime in April.

Expect insurance policies vary regarding damage to solar panels.

Dean

Thanks for sharing

Hey Geo,
I remember the "blizzards" of 77, 78 and 79 here in central Illinois.
68/69 were pretty good too !!

We got pounded by lake effect followed by high winds in 78. I still have the "book" I created for an elementary school class by pasting newspaper stories into the book, with the subject of the storms. I think we missed seven or eight straight days of school. We created some fantastic tunnels through the drifts, until one neighborhood mom caught us, and feared for all our lives.

A friend's mother had lived in rural South Dakota in the 50's, she showed me a book published about the Blizzard on the Rosebush(?) she had experienced firsthand. I want to say 1952? The government brought in bulldozers to make access, they just plowed straight lines, right through fences and farm yards, from small town to small town. Created all kinds of trouble for livestock farmers all year.

K, sounds like a great book! Have never experienced such deep snowfall and, Lord willing, never will. Bet there were some fabulous photos of the tunnels!

I didn't know that pretty much the entire country had a bad winter then ('78-'79) but we sure did. I was working on the City's road crew and spent 18 hours straight on an old 'knuckle-knocker' Cat blade, I was just able to keep up wih the first storm's snowfall on just the main streets! Yep, that winter was a real 'wooley-booger" but we've had a string of mild winters ever since.

I knew an excavator that went to NYC with heavy equipment to help clean up after one of those bizzards, radio and TV told people to mark there cars so operators would know where they were. He said many didn't and he pushed up quite a few cars with the snow.

(quoted from post at 20:27:47 03/15/17) I remember the blizzard well. I was living near Dayton, OH at the time.

Out of 900+ people, I was the only one that showed up for work driving a 2WD 3/4 ton PU with 7.50X16 bias ply tires on split rims.

The guard told me that the place was closed and sent me home, so I drove it back home and shoveled the bed full of compacted snow that had been deposited by the plow. I think it finally melted out sometime in April.

Expect insurance policies vary regarding damage to solar panels.

Dean

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I was in Arcanum. The cars in the driveways were buried. We had all the neighbors in our family room, because it was the only house with a fireplace. We did runs with the snowmobile to peoples house checking on them and getting foodstuffs to live on. Had to dig the horses out of the barn. Drifts all the way to roof peak.

When you say solar collectors are you referring to solar electric or solar hot water?

I own a 10K solar electric generation system. Mine is top-of-pole mount. I would never put a solar system on a roof, either electric or hot water. In my opinion, top of pole mount is superior to roof mount or stadium mount systems because you can adjust the system to allow for the movement of the sun daily from east to west and seasonally from north to south.

In your scenario, the snow load probably wouldn't damage the solar system, but you would have had a lot more difficulty removing the snow.

Bowling Green OH was 65 inches and 7 days of 60+ wind. ( days W/O power.) House and barn covered to the top of the roof. I stopped shaving on that day and have not since. Jim

Used to be lots of blizzards in N Ill. The one I remember was middle of Jan. 79. My middle brother was farming, had a heart attack first thing in the morning, 46 years old, ambulance couldn't get there, cows to milk, think around a 1000 hogs to take care of, deep snow everywhere. I lived about 8-10 miles away snowed in too, neighbor came across a field and pasture to get My wife and me out with a Big JD. Took about until middle of afternoon to get to the farm. Lots of neighbors and tractors plowing the farm out and getting the chores done. I took a weeks vacation to help out every day and on wk ends after too. Ya, I won't forget that winter, driving down RT20 was like going through a tunnel.

There was a 3 day blizzard in March, 1966 that affected North Dakota and northern Minnesota and a portion of South Dakota. Probably a portion of Canadian provinces too but I don't know that for sure. Two guys from Grand Forks, North Dakota wrote a book about that storm and included lots of stories from those who were in the storm. I contributed an article for the book. At the time I was a student at NDSU and working part time at a Fargo TV studio. Went to work on a Thursday afternoon. The storm was just coming on and 5 people of the station crew decided to stay at the studio overnight and keep things "on the air". Due to the storm, we didn't (couldn't) get home until Sunday afternoon because it was so bad that no roads and streets were plowed until the storm subsided. Fargo police brought us food using snow mobiles. It was a 3 day broadcast marathon.

Dang DRussell,

Your 10k makes my 2.5k seem puny. I'm guessing you're grid tied? I'm off the grid and have my panels on poles also. Don't have East West tracking just seasonal adjustments. I looked at trackers and concluded that for the cost I'd be money ahead to just put up more panels and that was before the prices plummeted. I am going to add another 1.5K this year or next, the problem is I'll have to switch to 24VDC and that will necessitate a new whole house inverter, so I'll have to save up another 2 thousand for that. Solar is great in my book! Been using the stuff for 25 years and have to laugh when people say it's not practical. JD

Geo,

I remember 69 or was it 68, and 78 was a dilly too.

As to your question about solar panels as DRussell noted you have to orientate them to compensate for the sun being lower in the winter. Some people do this three times a year, but around here I only do it twice a year. Yeah, I can be lazy at times. The thing is because it snows in the winter when the panels are almost vertical snow doesn't build up on them....well very often any way. When it does, it sheds pretty quickly as soon as the sun's rays starts hitting them. Some times if the batteries are low and I really want to capture as much energy as I can, cause the days are so short, I'll go out with a push broom and one downward swipe cleans them. That's the advantage of having them mounted on poles on the ground. As for the insurance issue some body else will have to address that one. But I suspect they'd be covered.....for an additional fee of course. JD