15 Years Ago...

The great Superstorm of 1993 was raging at this point 15 years ago. What an incredible storm....truly the storm of the century.

I was living in a community northeast of Birmingham as the Blizzard of '93 unfolded. So many memories of that system. I was still a kid at that point, and the euphoria we all felt that day leading up to the event was incredible. I remember as light snow began during the day and began to accumulate, kids getting out to play in it. But we all knew this was just the appetizer....the main event would begin that night.

As the night progressed, my excitement gradually turned to fear as the power went out and the wind howled over 50mph. That night I witnessed one of the most incredible weather events I have ever seen......thundersnow. And a lot of it. Blinding flashes of lightning and sharp pops of thunder as blizzard conditions continued outside. I remember watching out of the bedroom window and seeing various colors of flashes....some lightning, others transformers blowing.

As morning broke, it was an unbelievable sight. Officially, at the Birmingham Airport, 13" of snow had accumulated. Other communities had up to 20." The snow drifts were incredible.....easily up to 3 to 4 feet in spots. I remember taking the first walk that morning around the side of the house. I was walking along fine and then....ooomp. I had stepped into a drift and was in the snow up to my waist. I remember me and my buddy next door digging out the back door of our house....it was completely blocked by a 3' drift.

Like I mentioned, the power was out. So, we took our perishable items out of the refrigerator and put them in the snow bank outside the back door. I was out of school for a week. We had no power for four days....other folks were without power for over a week. Thankfully, we had a fireplace. We hung blankets across the opening of the door leading into the den where the fireplace was to keep the warmth in that room. And that room is where we lived. We ate what we could cook in the fireplace. Thankfully, we had a gas hot water heater, so we could take hot baths.

The city was shut down. It was easily the snowstorm of record. The next morning, the temperature dropped to 2 degrees at the Birmingham Airport. I still have the image burned into my brain of first responders carrying a pregnant woman in labor on a stretcher through the snow to get her to a safe place to deliver the baby. So many stories of people helping each other.

But the storm was not only amazing in Alabama. This incredible system dropped 50" of snow up on Mt. Mitchell. Winds gusted over 100mph in the mountains of North Carolina up through New Hampshire. A vicious tornado outbreak occurred in Florida.

We might not see such an incredible system again in our lifetimes.