COTC - 20 Mar 2026 - Blizzard of 26

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Good morning, Northern Michigan. This is your cup

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of Traverse City for the 03/20/2026,

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and

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spring

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is going to spring today

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at 10:46AM.

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Doesn't hardly look like it out there, but,

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it's melting. It's all good.

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So

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I'm gonna do a blizzard post mortem.

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Is this Traverse City snowiest snowiest

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storm ever?

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I don't know. They had a avalanche of

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business shutdowns, major thoroughfares like Grandview Parkway, M

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72 briefly closed to traffic.

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Four consecutive snow days for the local schools

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and tens of thousands of Michigan power customers

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without electricity.

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These are just a few of the impact

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impacts

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of this week's epic storm.

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So that's from the ticker, of course.

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It seems to be my go to

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for but, you know, it brings up something.

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You know, is this bigger than the blizzard

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of seventy eight? Well, in some ways, it

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is.

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Blizzard of seventy eight,

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As far as the total amount of snowfall,

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I know it was in here somewhere.

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Yeah. So the blizzard is 78 went all

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the way down to nine hundred and fifty

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fifty five millibars in pressure.

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That's, the lowest

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pressure of any

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any storm

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ever except for hurricanes.

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You know, some

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some hurricanes, you know, like a category five

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hurricane would

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be 920

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millibars. We got,

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the storm

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got down to what was it? But yeah.

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Nine fifty five was what the blizzard of

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seventy eight was, and this one was a

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little higher than that, but I can't find

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the right number. It's in the article.

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But

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by a snowfall,

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it actually is,

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bigger.

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Somewhere in here, they measured the snow and,

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it ended up being like 15 inches at

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the airport. The official, you know, official amount

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of snowfall. Now that doesn't account for the

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thirty and forty foot drifts

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that we're, around because of the 70 mile

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per hour winds. So, yeah, that storm was

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definitely impactful and probably a little more impactful

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being that, we didn't have the technology we

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have now to,

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train you know, get around. I mean, think

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about it. You know, how many people had

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four wheel drives even,

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in 1978

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versus

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now?

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You know, almost every car is available as

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all wheel drive, and I think most people

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drive all wheel drives, you know, at least,

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you know, at least around here.

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You know, of course, the port post office,

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lot most of their little vans are not.

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Speaking of which, I haven't had mail,

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since last Saturday,

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here. But,

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that's besides the point.

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But we had 19

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something inches of snow officially.

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19.8

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inches of snow officially in Traverse City. Other

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parts had more than that, obviously, 24 to

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30

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inches in the Upper Peninsula.

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And there's even, one place that had 52

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inches of snow, which is the all time

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state record.

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It didn't say somewhere in the UP, obviously.

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Oh, Munising. That's right. Reported 52 inches of

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snow.

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Geez.

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It's just ridiculous.

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You look outside and it's gone down a

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lot. My little snow meter in the yard

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here had 15,

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at the end of this whole thing, fifteen,

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sixteen

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in that

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range. And yesterday, we lost six and, it's

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already melted down even more. It was above

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freezing all night.

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But, yeah, that was

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that was something.

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But I think it's

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on its way out again officially it's spring

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here in a couple hours

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so that's a good thing.

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Snow totals for Traverse City for the season,

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it's a 141

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inches,

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which is,

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above normal, obviously. 93.3

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is the normal to date, and we are

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at a 152%

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of normal.

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Of course, the record

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was ninety five ninety six with a 191.2

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inches. I don't think we're gonna get there,

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and I'm hoping we don't get any higher

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than we are now.

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I'm done with it. Hey, you know, I'm

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I'm ready for for spring,

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to officially have sprung.

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So speaking of which, let's take a look

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at the weather.

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20% chance of snow showers before not snow

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showers.

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20%

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chance of showers,

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rain,

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to before 2PM. Patchy fog before 1PM.

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And I did hear there's some patchy fog

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around the South End Of Long Lake.

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Where I heard that, I don't remember. But,

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anyway, I heard that.

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So be careful driving out there,

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for fog anyway,

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if not sloppy slushy conditions and spots.

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Otherwise, it's cloudy then gradually becoming mostly sunny.

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High near 44

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Southwest wind, five to 10 miles per hour

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becoming north in the afternoon.

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Alright. Tonight,

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mostly cloudy with a low around 28. Northwest

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wind around five.

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Saturday, mostly cloudy with a high near 45.

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South wind around five miles per hour.

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Saturday night, a 50% chance of snow showers

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mainly before 2AM,

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mostly cloudy with a low around thirty three.

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South wind around five becoming west after midnight.

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Sunday night, a chance of rain showers before

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2PM, and then a slight chance of rain

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and snow

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showers.

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There's that word again. Mostly cloudy with a

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high near 38.

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North wind five to 10 miles per hour.

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And Sunday night, mostly cloudy with a low

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around 22.

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So and then Monday, mostly sunny and slightly

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above freezing.

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That's your weekend.

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Go out there,

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and, you know, get out of the house.

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For those of us that were snowed in,

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my mom was, literally snowed in. She has

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storm doors, which

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kind of ironic that, caused her to not

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be able to get out of the house.

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Well, she had one route, but

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then you'd have to wade through a bunch

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of snow. So she she never left the

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house for three days.

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But we got her all shoveled and plowed

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out,

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on Tuesday, I guess.

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Maybe Wednesday. I don't remember.

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But,

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anyway, everybody

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have a great weekend.

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Happy spring. We'll catch you on Monday.