The Great Blizzard of 1978 (The Cleveland Superbomb)
This blizzard produced the second lowest atmospheric pressure ever recorded over the contiguous U.S from a non tropical system. The Upper Midwest Region felt the full extent of the storm as a Cat 5 and the Ohio Valley Region experienced a Cat 3 storm. Indiana, Ohio and Michigan all declared states of emergency and had widespread travel cessation. South Bend, IN picked up 3 feet with many parts of southern Michigan buried in 2 feet. Heavy snow accompanied by 55 mph winds produced 10 to 20 foot drifts across the area causing many cities to completely shut down. Snow from the storm continued to blanket the area two months.
The storm by region
Each region’s thresholds are its own, so the same depth of snow counts for more in the South than in the Northeast.
| Region | Index | Category | Area with snow (sq mi) | People under snow | Above the top threshold (sq mi) | People above it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Midwest | 39.07 | Category 5, Extreme | 233,580 | 23,630,410 | 12,406 | 1,568,140 |
| Ohio Valley | 7.73 | Category 3, Major | 295,055 | 48,546,756 | 2,508 | 642,636 |
| South | 0.85 | Below category 1 | 359,587 | 22,110,280 | 0 | 0 |
| Northeast | 0.32 | Below category 1 | 149,627 | 41,238,592 | 0 | 0 |
| Northern Rockies and Plains | 0.21 | Below category 1 | 205,644 | 2,836,030 | 0 | 0 |
| Southeast | 0.12 | Below category 1 | 74,275 | 14,269,635 | 0 | 0 |
The Regional Snowfall Index is NOAA’s ranking of snowstorms east of the Rockies by how much snow fell, over how wide an area and on how many people, region by region: the area and the population above four snowfall thresholds set for each region, weighted against that region’s own history. A storm is scored in each region it reached, on a scale from 1, notable, to 5, extreme.
In the Storm Events record
The Storm Events Database holds winter weather only from 1996, so this storm has no episodes there.
More
The snowstorm of January 17 to 21, 1978Blizzard of 1978Snow nowEvery winter storm filed
Sources
NOAA NCEI Regional Snowfall Index, and the Storm Events Database for the episodes.