There was 27.1” of snow in Boston. And 27.6” of snow in Providence. Hurricane-force wind gusts producing drifts over 15 feet high! Approximately 3500 vehicles stuck along route 128. Fourteen of the many people trapped in those vehicles died, presumably from carbon monoxide poisoning, as they left their motors running to try to stay warm as snow piled up above the level of their exhaust systems. A total of 99 deaths were attributed to the storm in MA.. & R.I. There were massive power outages and record high tides with huge waves on top, crumbling sea walls and devastating coastal communities, leaving many homeless. The National Guard was called in to rescue folks and to help with the massive job of snow removal. Southern New England was shut down for a full week! It was The Blizzard of ’78, and it became the winter storm by which all others are measured. Anyone old enough to remember will never forget it. Those too young to remember, or who weren’t born yet, have listened to amazing accounts of the storm from their parents and/or grandparents. Each person who was around had his or her own compelling story to tell, and that included meteorologists who were working the storm. It was my first winter forecasting on Boston television, after having spent three years on Providence television. The winter of 1977-1978 had already been a very eventful and active one. On Friday, Jan. 20, 1978, just a few weeks before The Blizzard of ’78, a powerful winter nor’easter struck, producing 21” of snow in just 12 hours in Boston with wind gusts over 50 mph. Surely, I thought, at the time, that would be the most powerful storm of the winter. But I was proven wrong just 2 1/2 weeks later. The Blizzard of ’78 began early on Monday, Feb. 6 and the snow did not stop falling until Tuesday Night, the 7th. But, for me, it really began days earlier. I was the weekend and weekday noon meteorologist at Channel 7 in Boston at the time, but our chief meteorologist, Dr. Fred Ward, was away the Thursday and Friday before the storm, so I was filling in. It was on that Thursday, February 2nd, that I began to suspect that the forces of nature might be aligning to produce something very major several days down the road. A large and bitter cold High-Pressure area was centered just north of Minnesota, bringing frigid temperatures to the northern states, including New England. Meanwhile, some of our computer models were indicating a strong disturbance at high levels of the atmosphere would drop down out of Alberta Province in Canada (we call these disturbances Alberta Clippers) and move through the lower Great Lakes over the weekend, and then reach the East Coast on Monday. These storms normally carry only limited moisture...until they reach The East Coast, where they can then tap into the vast moisture source we know as The Atlantic Ocean. Now, it’s important to note that in the 1970s, computer models were not nearly as sophisticated or as accurate as they are today. As a forecaster, one would really have to make use of his or her education and experience to make great leaps of faith from what the computer models were indicating to what actually might happen. I began to realize that this might be just such a case. Ever since I was a little boy, I have been fascinated by weather, especially storms, and most especially winter storms. I was so into winter storms that, through the years, I was building a mental encyclopedia of all winter storms. So, even back in 1978, I considered winter storms to be my area of greatest interest and ability. Even though computer models were only hinting at a significant storm, I had seen enough to feel fairly confident that we would be in for a biggie. First, bitterly cold air was already established. Second, the ocean water temperature was cold (35-36 degrees). This is important because many of these types of storms can result in a change to rain, especially along the coast, as ocean winds increase if ocean water temperatures are higher. Third, based on my experience with computer models at the time, I knew they underestimated the strength of these storms when they reached the East Coast. And fourth, we were in a very active winter pattern which favored many East Coast Storms. I knew then, as I know now, that when we are in such a pattern, we usually have multiple major nor’easters in a winter season. Conversely, when we are not in such a pattern, we can sometimes go through the entire winter season without ever getting a major snowstorm. So, with all of this in mind, I went on the air Thursday Night, Feb. 2, four days before the storm and said that the potential was there for a major snowstorm early the following week. I also remember saying: “But one doesn’t want to go too far out on a limb, or one may fall off.” In those days, forecasting a potential major snowstorm four days before was virtually unheard of. On Friday night, Feb. 3, my confidence grew stronger on the air, and by Saturday Night, Feb. 4, I was about as convinced as a forecaster could be, considering it was still 36 hours before the expected start of the storm. I remember all of this as if it was yesterday. I was so worked up that I could hardly sleep from Thursday night on, meaning that by the time the storm actually began on Monday, I was already exhausted! But, as confident as I was on the air in the days before the storm, as soon as I left the station and began to think, I would get really nervous. What if something goes wrong? After all, this is the weather, and even today, there are still occasional surprises that cause forecasts to go array. In those days, that would happen considerably more often. After making such a strong call on the storm on Saturday Night, Feb. 4, I worried that if anything did go wrong, I would probably be run out of town...after all, it was just my first winter forecasting on Boston television. My wife Lorraine can tell you that it wasn’t easy to live before that storm hit. I was so obsessed with the potential storm that I could not concentrate on anything else! I was off the day before the storm hit (Sunday, Feb. 5). Lorraine and I went out with some friends that day. But my mind was really somewhere else, imagining the impact this storm was going to have, while still fearing something might go wrong. I was scheduled to work the next day (Monday, Feb. 6) both in the morning and at noon. But I couldn’t wait that long to get to work. I kissed Lorraine (6 months pregnant with our 1st child at the time) goodbye at 11:30 p.m. Sunday night and headed into the station (little did I know at the time that it would be a whole week before I would see her again). I just had to be where the action was and, most importantly, where all the weather information would be (remember, this was before the days of the internet, so I couldn’t study the weather situation unless I was actually in the workplace). I tried to sleep on a couch at the station for a few hours, but my mind would not settle down enough to allow that, so I watched the limbs on the trees sway to and fro as the northeasterly winds gradually increased. Then I went into the weather center to start checking the latest data. All looked good as the snow was stretching from Washington, D.C., up to Bridgeport, Ct. The temperature was 25 degrees in Boston, which was fine, but in just one hour, the temperature jumped to 30 degrees as the wind became more easterly and increased further. Oh no! Did this mean that Boston would wind up with rain and I would look like the biggest fool in the world?...career over at such a young age (29)? Fortunately, it did not. The ocean was cold enough to keep it all snow (except on Cape Cod, which did experience a change to rain). It did mean that coastal areas would have wet snow during the first half of the storm, while inland areas would have dry powdery snow…what we would call a powder blizzard. Snow flurries began in Boston around 10 a.m. and by noontime, a steady light snow was falling. But at 5 p.m. there was still just light snow falling, and Boston only had less than 1” of accumulation, while Providence already had over 6”. Did this mean at the last minute, the storm was moving out to sea a bit too far south to nail Boston? These are the fears a forecaster has when his forecast, and in this case, his reputation, as well as his career, are on the line. Well, just as my anxiety reached a peak, the snow began to rapidly increase in intensity in Boston, and The Blizzard of ’78 was really underway. Harvey Leonard is currently Chief Meteorologist Emeritus at WCVB-TV in Boston, MA, and has been privileged to have a 50+ year career as a Broadcast Meteorologist in New England.