20 Years Since the Blizzard of 1996

I'm officially starting to feel old. It was 20 years ago today January 6, 1996 that a blizzard hit the northeast burying us in close to two feet of snow! 

I actually remember this storm pretty well. I was only 8 at the time but I remember it being the very first snowstorm that gave me not one but two days off from school! In fact, school was cancelled the night before! Knowing snow was on the way and school was already cancelled was one of the best feelings a kid could have! 

I wish I had some time to dig up some old pictures from the storm because I'm sure they're great ones. My siblings and I were still young, so the snow depth was quite impressive compared to our small frames. 

I even remember my dad having to snowblow a path through our backyard gate so we could open it. This way we were able to slide down the hill in our backyard, through the gate, down the side yard, over the 4 foot snow banks on the curb and go airborne into the street!! Before you freak out about anyone getting hit by cars, it was a dead end street and all the neighborhood kids were having fun while the parents kept and eye out for traffic. It was an AWESOME time! 

Here's a cool graphic of the weather pattern that the storm formed in. 

Summer Under the Stars - Katharine Hepburn on TCM! AKA 1938 Hurricane Survivor!

Summer Under the Stars is an awesome program that Turner Classic Movies channel runs in August every year. Each day they feature a 24 hour movie marathon for a different actor or actress from the past. Every year they show films of great actors and actresses like Bogart, Carey Grant, Bette Davis or Joan Crawford. However, my favorite day is always Katharine Hepburn day, which falls on August 7th this year (2015). 

Katharine Hepburn is one of my favorite actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood. I also like her because she is a Connecticut native, born in Hartford but raised at her family's summer retreat in Old Saybrook, CT where the Connecticut River meets Long Island Sound. I find her hilarious in her films Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story, as well as all films she starred in with Spencer Tracey, who she had a long term affair with! 

So you might be wondering why I'm talking about Katharine Hepburn, classic movies and Summer Under the Stars on a weather blog...Well, one of the other reasons I love Katharine Hepburn so much is that she survived the same hurricane that my grandmother lived through. She was in Old Saybrook on the day of the infamous Great New England Hurricane of 1938, aka The Long Island express. She had even gone swimming in Long Island Sound that very morning. Her waterfront home was destroyed by the storm and she barely got out alive but a hurricane was no match for a strong woman like Katharine Hepburn! Although her house was destroyed, she showed up the next day to start cleaning up the destruction and even posed for a few publicity photos. Check them out on my hub! 

Check out the rest of the photos and the story at my article on Hubpages titled: "Katharine Hepburn, the Hollywood Legend and Hurricane Survivor"

The Historic Connecticut Flood of June 4-7, 1982

It's the 33rd anniversary of a historic flood in Connecticut. Between the days of June 4 - 7, 1982, a low pressure stalled off the New England coast, drenching coastal Connecticut with rains up to 16 inches! It still stands as the wettest storm in southern Connecticut's recorded history. 

The National Weather Service released this graphic below with stats from the storm. The most rain fell on June 5th, when nearly 10 inches flooded the area. The floods cost upwards of 230 million dollars! 

Below the graphic is a video with a series of news reports from the New Haven, Connecticut area during and after the storm. 

Although I wasn't alive, I do remember my dad talking about a storm around this time, flooding City Hall in Milford, Connecticut. City Hall is right on the Wepawaug river. My dad, who was a police officer at the time, said that old paper records kept in the basement of town hall were ironically floating down River Street. Below is a photo of Milford's city hall along the Wepawaug river. 

photo source