Eddie Norris remembers snowdrifts that threatened to swallow houses. He remembers airdrops of food to people in remote places. He says he has never again seen such a snow as the great blizzard of 1960.
It was actually a series of five major snowstorms that began 50 years ago this week -- an anniversary that forecasters say could be preceded by another blizzard in the mountains beginning late today.
Scientists say that the 1960 blizzard is still the snowiest period on record for the Southern Appalachians.
Snow fell on average about every other day from Feb. 13 to March 26.
"It snowed so heavy, the temperatures stayed down, and it didn't have a chance to melt," Norris said.
High winds blew the snow into tall drifts. A crew might plow a road one afternoon, and overnight winds would blow the drifts so it looked as if crews had never touched the road.
Bulldozers, graders and snow blowers arrived in Wilkes County from the coast, and Norris was part of a N.C. Department of Transportation crew that helped guide the equipment up the mountain.
Gov. Luther Hodges sent in the National Guard. Helicopters dropped supplies to people trapped in rural cabins. One story had it that an airdrop of hay landed on a farmer's cow and killed it.
Baker Perry, now an assistant professor at Appalachian State University in Boone, was captivated by those stories that he heard from his grandfather and others.
One of Perry's special areas of study is snowfall patterns and processes in the Southern Appalachians. He is an expert on the 1960 snowstorms.
Perry said that the 1960 storms produced 83 inches of snow in 43 days in Boone. That's nearly 7 feet of snow.
Snowfall totals in Boone since Oct. 1, 2009, were about 45 inches through yesterday.
The snows so far haven't drifted a lot because they have been wet, heavy snows and there hasn't been a lot of wind. That's expected to change today, with forecasters predicting gusts of up to 70 mph.
The National Weather Service's definition of a blizzard is a storm that contains snow or blowing snow with winds in excess of 35 mph reducing visibility to less than a quarter-mile for at least three hours.
The wind expected today could cause a considerable amount of drifting snow, forecasters say. Blizzard or near-blizzard conditions are possible in the higher elevations from late today into Thursday.
The kind of blizzard that hit in 1960 hasn't happened again in the past 50 years.
"It certainly takes a highly unusual set of circumstances to come together to produce an extended period of cold and storminess in just the right place," Perry said.
mmitchell@wsjournal.com
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