Reply #11: The Alberta Clippers [View All]

No, that's not a hockey team. It's a name given to a storm cell that swoops down out of Northern Canada to dump snow on the lower 48. In my thirty-some years as a Michigan resident--from the late 40's through 1980, I cannot count the times that a promising warmer March was ruined by one of these guys.

One Friday in 1967, while I was at Michigan State University, an Alberta Clipper dumped 38 inches on central Michigan. Whole buildings on campus were swallowed by the drifts. I do not now recall the month, but I remember that it was late in the season. Campus was closed for one whole day, then classes resumed, students trudging to class through the waist deep snow everywhere on campus. Those of us who had cross-country skis on campus had it better. It took days and days to clear the snow. They piled all of the snow on the west side of campus. The pile didn't all melt until weeks later, long after the more balmy April rains.

Largest snow storm I've ever witnessed.

<on eidt:>
On Googling this blizzard, I found that it was Jan 27, 1967, nearly forty years ago. Memory plays tricks on you after that period of time.

Here's an article from the Lansing State Journal

Apparently this was not an Alberta Clipper, but a cell of high moisture that came up from New Mexico and slammed into cold air from the north.