Numerous closures of interstates and highways resulted, including Interstate 75 which was closed for three days, a portion of Interstate 475 near Toledo which was shut down for six days, and the entire length of the Ohio Turnpike which was closed for the first time in its history. Cars were easily buried and many individuals were left stranded in their vehicles. In addition to reaching the rooftops of houses and businesses and causing many roof collapses, these huge drifts brought practically all means of air, rail, and highway transportation to a complete standstill for 24 hours or more. Gusty winds also caused numerous other instances of structural damage as well as massive snowdrifts reaching 15 to 25 feet in height. As a result, hundreds of thousands of homes were left without power and heat, and many important communication lines were disconnected. Widespread wind damage occurred as thousands of trees and many miles of electric/telephone lines were blown down. The powerful winds and snow caused major complications across the entire region. Photo courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, Wright State University. In northern Ohio and other parts of the region, snowdrifts were tall enough to bury whole semis. Large snowdrifts buried these cars in Vandalia, Ohio up to their rooftops and made roadways completely impassable. Other areas across the region saw well over a foot of snow from the storm. While snowfall was difficult to measure due to the strong winds, official storm-total snowfall amounts from January 25-27 ranged from 4.7 inches in Columbus to 6.9 inches in Cincinnati to 12.9 inches in Dayton. An ore carrier stranded in thick ice on Lake Erie just offshore from Sandusky reported sustained winds of 86 mph with gusts to 111 mph that morning! Extremely cold wind chills around minus 50 degrees or lower continued throughout the day, making it especially dangerous to venture outside. Wind gusts averaged 50 to 70 mph for much of the day on the 26th, reaching 69 mph at Dayton and Columbus and 82 mph in Cleveland. Temperatures rapidly plunged from the 30s to bitter-cold single digits in just a few hours. Visibilities were near zero for much of the day and even into the 27th. By 7 AM, blizzard conditions extended all the way to Cleveland. ![]() Blizzard conditions arrived in Cincinnati around 1 AM January 26 and reached Dayton and Columbus within the next couple hours. Early the next morning, an arctic airmass pushed into the area with bitter cold temperatures and howling winds. National Weather Service offices across the Great Lakes and Upper Ohio Valley had issued blizzard warnings for most of the region by late evening on January 25th. Rain and fog were widespread across the region during the evening hours of Januwith temperatures generally in the 30s and 40s. Even more impressive was Cleveland's record low pressure reading of 28.28 inches, which remains the lowest pressure ever recorded in Ohio and one of the lowest pressure readings on record within the mainland United States (not associated with a hurricane). These readings set new records for the lowest sea level pressures ever recorded at each station. On January 26th, the barometric pressure dropped to 28.46 inches of mercury at Columbus, 28.68 inches at Dayton, and 28.81 inches at Cincinnati. In fact, several weather stations in the storm's path had to readjust their barographs as station pressures fell below the initial chart scale. The resultant massive and powerful storm system produced some of the lowest pressure readings ever recorded in the United States mainland that were not associated with hurricanes. a surface low pressure system moving north from the Gulf Coast into Kentucky and Ohio. The barograph at the National Weather Service office located at the Greater Cincinnati Airport had to be readjusted as an unprecedented drop in pressure caused the pen to fall off the initial chart scale.
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