Blizzard of '78: Barry Burbank's Memories of the Historic Storm

Barry was forecasting in New England during the storm, and has seen how forecasting has evolved in the 40 years since.

[@leejams1]

wow, does this bring back memories. I was a 16 yo weather hobbyist up in Lebanon NH. All day we were watching these guys down in Boston and not a flake was flying up our way. Until nightfall then it came in fast and by daybreak our front door basically had us trapped. I had to go out 2nd floor window to get to the shed/shovel out front door and my dad unbelievably went off to work at Dartmouth cause if you could get to the street they had those plowed pretty well as usual. But sure do remember watching these 3 as they are and were some of the best. cheers.

[@shastacastor]

So fun when you’re 10 with a week of school off. We kept jumping out the upstairs windows into the snow until my mother shut that down. Lol. My father was stuck at work for several days until he walked home. Looking back I’m not sure I would want to be an adult in that storm while worrying about family, friends, and if you have enough food to feed your kids. I try to explain to the younger people why there’s a milk/ bread frenzy but unless you live it you just don’t know. Honestly, it was crazy but I would do it again.

[@tenofivelips]

Or 9. 😁

[@johnshields6852]

We lived in Weymouth, 20 min drive south of Boston, our house was right on the coast and the house got 3 ft in the living room, had to evacuate to relatives house, the whole family trudging through the snow, we survived and that's what matters, I was 17 and the 5 of us made it to grandma's house with a roaring fireplace, streets were shut down for I think 5 days . 44 years ago, man I'm old.

[@scottd7222]

Time Flys man

[@helenmcnabb]

Thank you. Many memories of this storm for everyone.

[@improperbostonian6722]

Huge killer blizzard! of 1978 No school for a week! That was one amazing storm. I use to like Don Kent his voice sounded like Elmer Fudd.

[@felixmadison5736]

I was 29 years-old and living where I grew up, Falmouth, Ma. on Cape Cod. I'll never forget the amount of snow from that '78 Blizzard, or the shoveling and plowing! I'm 75 years of age in 2004, and I've never seen a storm like that. Thinking about it makes me shiver!

[@florencechestnut2270]

It's great seeing Bruce Schwoegler again congratulations Barry Burbank of 40 years at WBZ! ✨😊

[@1BostonTerrierGirl]

Yes it was great Bruce Schwoegler again. He always got excited about storms.

[@altfactor]

I don't think Bruce Schwoegler got named WBZ-TV's "Chief Meteorologist" until Don Kent retired in 1983, although Schwoegler was the weeknight evening forecaster and Kent did morning and noon weathercasts.

[@KevMac58]

Thanks for all your work Barry!!

[@KingOfInsanity777]

We need a snowstorm like this again. This is the snow every person in New England dreams about!

[@jackshirley2360]

it’s 60 degrees in mass rn

[@scottd7222]

This is the storm every person of a certain age in New England talks about at nauseum lol

[@mr2del]

RIP Bruce Schwoegler.

[@mattywho8485]

Did anyone else notice the SIZE OF THAT CAT the lady was carrying @3:41 !!!!

[@richardwrynn824]

Days after the blizzard I was walking down mass Ave in Arlington and I looked down at my feet and saw a small blue circle in the snow. I started kicking at it with my boots and it was the top of a USPS mailbox.

[@knitterscheidt]

I watched the local NY news station the night before, I don't remember any mention of snow for the NY metro area. The next morning I got ready for school as usual but when I opened the back door to let my dog Sandy out the snow was drifted above the back porch, about 4 ft. high. Sandy bolted out the door and dove into it and frolicked. I went to the windows on the driveway side of the house and my VW was completely buried, I could see just the top of mom's Olds. I've yet to see a storm like it.

[@da2585]

I was 19 years old and lived in Pembroke Massachusetts. I had to jump out the window to shovel out the front door so my dad and I could go out and try to find my brother who was at work a few towns over (mind you a 20 minute ride in normal conditions) Unknowingly we passed my brother who had been on the road for two hours trying to get home. It took my dad and I 3 hours to get to my brothers job (of course no one in site) and 4 hours back home. My dad was driving with his head out the window for 5 of those hours because the windshield wiper blades completely froze in place. Something I will never forget....

[@richardpitts6284]

So cool Barry 😎,we love you bro !

[@ScienceCreAchins]

I was shoveling my driveway that first evening (Monday - 2/6) and it started thundering and lightning in near white out conditions. Seemed like the end times.

[@ChristopherTradeshow]

My teacher's class did a snow dance and did all the superstitious things to make it snow, so they'd have a snowday the next day. The next day was the Blizzard of 78

[@missustoad1]

I lived on a steep hill in Syracuse a few miles from the bus station. Not only did they not plow, I had to walk in almost hip deep snow in the ROAD until I hit Erie Blvd. Then it was dangerously icy the rest of the way, cars sliding, etc. I love snow days.

[@jamesgiroux7619]

I remember rescuing motorists on interstate 290 in Shrewsbury with our snowmobiles normally be ticketed for my Artic Cat...lol

[@stevedavis4377]

i remember being flat on my back with the flu.4 days watching you guys nice hair by the way😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅

[@jamesgiroux7619]

Look at the weather board graphics....I can't be that old can i?

[@88997799]

I was born in 1973 in Ohio. I remember that storm. The snow was so deep the doors were covered up past the tops. We had to dig a tunnel to the barn that was over 50 yards away so we could feed and give the horses warm water plus care for the other animals because it was -50° to -60° below zero in London Ohio. Damn it was cold and I’ve never seen so much snow again ever! When will it happen again?... 🤔

[@jjs777fzr]

I was 7 in ‘78 for the blizzard and remember sitting in my parents house front porch watching the water splash over the sea wall. It was so cool! Until the water rose and you could no longer see the seawall. When the waves started crashing against the house I got scared and my parents whisked me away in a mild panic to the back of the house. The town had one of those WWII era duck boats and it was being used to rescue seashore residents. Up until it sank. Then a huge front end loader was rescuing residents from the flooded streets. We stayed because they were not taking pets. I’ll never forget this storm. No storm has ever compared to this one. My parents always made sure to get the bread, milk and eggs ahead of later forecasted storms.

[@W0rdn1nja]

My baby sister was born in the blizzard of '78 in NH

[@altfactor]

Although the network affiliated TV stations in Boston pre-empted the network newscasts on February 6th and 7th, 1978 for local storm coverage, the network evening newscasts that evening supposedly led with the storm and devoted about half the program to it.

[@marioncobaretti2280]

it started 10 am on monday the 6th ....ended at 6 am the 8th wednesday morning on the south shore

[@AarHan3]

Way to hit the ground running, Bar! ⛄❄

[@CS-np2oo]

I was a year old. My mom was in her 9th year st Gillette and told me she had to walk a couple of blocks with me in the snow because the cab couldn't get to our house.

[@anthonydavid5121]

I was in the 10th grade in Cumberand RI in 1978. Remember this storm like it w yesterday. It really did change the New England psyche. Since this blizzard, it seems like any mention of an approaching snow storm triggers the question of severity, and if we need to get the survival goods now considering the fact that we didn't really have time to get provisions back then.

[@paulgutermann8413]

I was a senior in college in Worcester. That was a really fun week.

[@fartboxer22]

This is absolutely the greatest thing on the internet

[@paull2937]

I want a repeat of this, just without the wind.

[@drby0788]

I like the sliding walls MUCH better than watching them try to act on a monitor lol

[@macnchessplz]

This blizzard is one of my husband’s favorite time machine stories ;-) We’re both old enough to remember it but in different ways (a handful of years age difference). I’ve never told mine. I do remember the huge walls of dug through snow though. I don’t believe I’ve seen anything like it since……

[@davidmcleod7757]

I remember you guys very well my boss let us out of work at 11:00 i had to drive a man who was in a wheel chair i did not have 4 wheel drive and had retread snow tires my parents had a mobile home in town it took 3 tries to get up a hill in the park in Jaffrey nh too get into their driveway but i made it stayed for the night thank god we didn't loose power I was discharged from the Navy in April of 77 and was in the Pacific for 8 years and when the Blizzard hit i said I gave the Pacific up for this crap only goes to show you can take the boy out of NE but you can't take NE out of the boy

[@8avexp]

I remember it well. I was at UConn and classes were canceled for two days.

[@Really658]

I got discharged from the air force in December 1978, and drove through from new Mexico to Michigan in a Ford Econoline van a lot of snow!

[@gordongiobanni7543]

Its hilarious the maps that were shown back then

[@mackdog832]

The best weathermen ever

[@toddsmith1617]

I was stationed in the coast guard in Gloucester during the april 1997 storm and could not believe it would snow like that in april because i was from centerl PA and it never snowed like that.

[@terrihart2133]

Congratulations Berry

[@jonbryn4]

I travelled across the country during this from Alaska to conneticut, amazing

[@paulaward5346]

Hello from Tyler Texas!

[@JohnnyAloha69]

I remember spending a week digging four feet of sand out of the basement that summer to get at my surf boards. (On the beach in southern maine).

[@Jdwify]

Don't forget that there was an equally devastating blizzard which started on January 25, 1978. This blizzard paralyzed everything from Illinois eastward to western Pennsylvania and dropped several feet of snow across Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, And Wisconsin. We, in Cincinnati, got 3 hours warning that a serious storm was coming. The storm hit at 11:30 pm with heavy snow and winds over 60 miles per hour. The National Guard was brought in to help clear roads, get supplies to hospitals, rescue stranded motorists, etc. This blizzard was a combination of an Alberta Clipper and a southern storm system which happened to bomb over Cleveland, Ohio. This blizzard was also ten days before the equally devastating blizzard that hit New England in February, 1978. The winters of the late 1970's were brutal and fierce. I'll never forget them.

[@elaineanderson8868]

I’ll never forget that storm it was ctazy

[@johnshields6852]

Oh, my car was under 4 ft of sea water on our street , then it froze, 3 days later I walked back to the house and I was standing on top of the frozen sea water and the only thing showing as I stood on top of my car was the tip of the radio antenna.

[@altfactor]

I seem to recall that Don Kent's "six to twelve inches" prediction on the morning of February 6th, 1978 was the only TV forecaster that morning forecasting a major snowstorm. Most other forecasters were predicting less than an inch, if even that!

[@kathyhudson8110]

What was your epic blizzard was also Indiana's all time epic blizzard. It is what I measure all blizzards of today, and not a one has come close to that one! Yes, we still talk of it today.

[@johnjones9642]

I'm in n.e. Ohio age 16 & I remember that. I was scared. I thought it was the end of the world with all that snow!👀me & my brother could hardly get OUT of the house with big snow drifts against the doors. After 3 days my mom and sister went to get a few groceries on sleds while me _ my brother shoveled snow. It was unreal.

[@scottsheehan1596]

it was alot of snow.but the storms of 15,3 ft every week for a month definitely beats 78

[@mancheezethegreat8617]

I remember this! I was 9 years old living in Boston.

[@bostonbevo8015]

i went to the beanpot that nite. what an idiot

[@yeet7914]

I got snowed in down in Indiana at my old trailer house

[@markbelanger5757]

The worst blizzard to ever hit boston in my opinion. I don't care that the storm in 2003 produced 1/2 more snow. The winds in 2003 gusted to 65 mph. The storm in 78 gusted to 111 mph! my wife and I were stuck in our home for almost a week. The town trucks were breaking down. the state hired a man with a huge dozer. It got us out, but a couple hundred yards down the street it broke down. It stayed there until spring! We got about 32 inches. The ocean was very rough. It pulled homes into the sea. Some boats went under. Over 70 people died. Its going to take a bigger storm than 2003 to take number one place.

[@LaneyandherGermanShepherds]

People make fun of me for getting ready for storms. Those people don't remember the storms we can get !

[@emomuzz5883]

My fav lizzard of 78 memory: two weeks NO SCHOOL! :)

[@italishgirl5601]

Where was Shelby Scott!?!?! Lol

[@jameshallahan4376]

Wonder where Bruce is now

[@michaelf7863]

Barry, make sure you still have your 401 k. I mean look who are standing next to/working with.

[@johndaniels7609]

Why do they say the 93 blizzard was the storm of the century? This one seemed worse. I was 5 when this hit so I dont really remember it but my dad tells me about it. I'm in Ohio so I didn't get the full effects of the 93 blizzard.

[@improperbostonian6722]

Don Kent Talked Like Elmer Fudd. Think It Was His Maine Accent.

[@joelgurner6663]

Don't forget about Norm Macdonald I have a picture of norm Don kent and bruce schwegler

[@sag1970]

Casco bay froze

[@bloconte2796]

Wow he looked like Ted Bundy when he was younger

[@danr4197]

Oh come on, Paul Cousins was the best on WBZ! ROTFLMFAO!

[@luzfigueroa1550]

Thats one of many reasons to not live in New England...Florida is looking good.

[@g3heathen209]

If you do not like the weather in new England, wait a minute it will change.

[@SoloTravelerOffTheBeatenPath]

Florida is full of psychotic people.

[@goyadressunofficial]

@@SoloTravelerOffTheBeatenPath And a lot of retired New Englanders.

[@tillygirl7450]

@@g3heathen209 Thank you for the laugh and memory of that saying. I now live in the San Francisco Bay Area and the weather is never really bad, except last year 2020 was excessive heat all summer long and into fall. I do miss Massachusetts and the change of seasons, especially Autumn. I love New England, the people and the four seasons. 😊💖

[@fartboxer22]

The birth of HAARP

[@scottyirish3231]

2013 our blizzard in West River South Dakota took out 300,000 head of cattle and a few people. Sturgis SD especially! WE lost 250 head....💔😔😤