Speaker 1: It's night side with Dan Ray. I'm WBSY Constance Radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you Alic Grippin. As we head into our nine
Speaker 2: o'clock hour and was as we await apparently the approach
Speaker 2: of really the first real snowstorm of this winter of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four and twenty five with us is ACU
Speaker 2: meteorologist Bob Larson. Bob, I got a feel and this
Speaker 2: one's for real? What say you?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 4: The first thing, Yeah, it's good to be here, Dan,
Speaker 4: thanks for having me this evening. Definitely, this is standing
Speaker 4: out more so than anything we've had to this point,
Speaker 4: if for no other reason. Notice that we're not talking
Speaker 4: about a changeover to sleet and rain and freezing rain,
Speaker 4: not only specifically in Boston of course, the north and
Speaker 4: west of suburbs, but all the way to the coast,
Speaker 4: even out onto the Cave. This is primarily, if not fully,
Speaker 4: a snowstorm, and it just no matter how much falls
Speaker 4: without having to be concerned about rain, snow lines and
Speaker 4: change overs. It's a fast moving storm, so there is
Speaker 4: a limit as to how much can pile up. It's
Speaker 4: not going to be turning into a mammoth a historic snowstorm,
Speaker 4: but it is a snowstorm. It all counts, nonetheless.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about this a little bit just to
Speaker 2: help people. First of all, at this point and look,
Speaker 2: predicting the snow or weather is more difficult than most
Speaker 2: people realize. My understanding was that this is somewhere out
Speaker 2: in the Midwest, and first of all, what's the timeline.
Speaker 2: What's the talking about people here in New England generally,
Speaker 2: you know, what's the earliest we're going to see some
Speaker 2: snowflakes that are associated with this, and how long will
Speaker 2: it last?
Speaker 4: Timeline is well, as you mentioned, this is coming from
Speaker 4: the Midwest Northern Plains, headed east bound across the Great
Speaker 4: Lakes region tonight and then into the northeast tomorrow and
Speaker 4: on its way toward New England, and snow should be
Speaker 4: breaking out locally pretty close to twenty four hours from now.
Speaker 4: I'll give it a window of between eight and ten
Speaker 4: o'clock tomorrow evening for star time a little bit sooner
Speaker 4: out in Springfield, for example, southwest through to Hertford Providence.
Speaker 4: That's the direction more or less that it's coming from,
Speaker 4: but somewhere in that time period. So bottom line, if
Speaker 4: you have errands to run, things to take care of
Speaker 4: things to do. Places to be no issues during the
Speaker 4: day Saturday, all the way up through and just past sunset,
Speaker 4: but things will go downhill and travel will deteriorate pretty
Speaker 4: quickly Saturday evening once this moves in. It's not the
Speaker 4: type of snow that where when it starts it's thirty
Speaker 4: six degrees and it's initially melting on the roads and
Speaker 4: it takes a while for things to get covered. This
Speaker 4: should get going pretty quickly once it starts to snow.
Speaker 4: Every flake will count and we'll see the snow begin
Speaker 4: to pile up. And once the snow falls more heavily
Speaker 4: toward and just after midnight, that's when we're really going
Speaker 4: to see conditions deteriorate. As even though it's a fast
Speaker 4: moving store, there will be a period of time the
Speaker 4: snowfall rate will be impressive and still be falling toward
Speaker 4: an incher a little bit more per hour, which is
Speaker 4: certainly substantial.
Speaker 2: Okay, So again, and in terms of the general it
Speaker 2: will be over sometime as I understand that after the
Speaker 2: sun comes up Sunday morning.
Speaker 4: Yeah, think of it roughly a twelve hour storm, so
Speaker 4: an eight to ten pm window for a start time,
Speaker 4: and likely ending eight to ten am on Sunday, give
Speaker 4: or take an hour or so. So think of it
Speaker 4: as essentially a twelve hour story. No matter where you are,
Speaker 4: it starts first west and southwest likely ends first in
Speaker 4: that direction as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, and again it's always tough to give a prediction.
Speaker 2: But what's the range, what's the what's the most, what's
Speaker 2: the least? Do we talk in five to eight or
Speaker 2: something like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it seems like every storm has its complications when
Speaker 4: it comes to forecast issues. More often than not isined
Speaker 4: determining if and where it's going to be mixing with
Speaker 4: and change you over to sleep and freezing rain. I
Speaker 4: don't think that's the issue here. As I mentioned, the
Speaker 4: issue this time around is the fact that while the
Speaker 4: storm originates over the upper Midwest and as the heads
Speaker 4: he's bound, there's a secondary story that will be developing
Speaker 4: just off the midline of coast and that takes over
Speaker 4: as the primary storm. And that's always a little bit
Speaker 4: tricky to pinpoint exactly when that handoff occurs from storm
Speaker 4: one to storm two and when that becomes the primary storm.
Speaker 4: Case in point, long before that secondary storm gets going.
Speaker 4: If you were to go do west to here, back
Speaker 4: to say like Buffalo, New York, or Erie, Pennsylvania. So
Speaker 4: or are they also getting six eight inches of snow? No,
Speaker 4: probably only one to three inches of snow. Well, how
Speaker 4: can that be because they're not going to have any
Speaker 4: influence of this secondary storm, which will have access to
Speaker 4: Atlantic moisture. So the storm that's come from the northern
Speaker 4: plains is not all that terribly impressive, and as a
Speaker 4: matter of fact, should be weakening as it comes eastbound.
Speaker 4: But we're banking on the idea that this secondary storm
Speaker 4: takes over and becomes and strengthens and becomes the primary storm,
Speaker 4: and that puts down some moderate to heavy amounts. We're
Speaker 4: expecting in terms of overall range, specifically calling it a
Speaker 4: four to eight inch general accumulation across the area, perhaps
Speaker 4: a little bit less out on the cape, not because
Speaker 4: of rain, but because just it's proximity to where the
Speaker 4: secondary is tour in forms. Down to Long Island, it
Speaker 4: might be more like two to four inches. And then
Speaker 4: you get down to central New Jersey and it's there
Speaker 4: that's where they're gonna have a lot of sleep and
Speaker 4: freezing rain. As you look to the north, still generally
Speaker 4: expecting four to eight inches. I think there's going to
Speaker 4: be a zone somewhere from central Massachusetts north and into
Speaker 4: central and southern anyway from Mount New Hampshire and to
Speaker 4: a down east Maine near or just west of Portland,
Speaker 4: where there's going to be upwards of ten ten inches.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be surprised if we get some reports coming.
Speaker 4: We had all these reports come to a some official.
Speaker 3: Some not.
Speaker 4: But I wouldn't be surprised if we see some reports
Speaker 4: of right around a foot not locally per se, but
Speaker 4: deeper into and farther north in New England.
Speaker 2: Okay, Now, my sense, and I guess just my sense,
Speaker 2: is that we haven't had a real snow storm in
Speaker 2: the greater Boston area, meaning something like this, this spens
Speaker 2: out five four to eight inches, that's a real snowstorm.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Really, in most cases, it's been a couple of years.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, it has been. We were we were brushed.
Speaker 4: I had to look this up, and I will do
Speaker 4: so before we finish this conversation. But I do have
Speaker 4: some stats in front of me that I have already
Speaker 4: looked up. We have been what I would call Nickeldon
Speaker 4: dime so far this year, little, this little of that
Speaker 4: and with mixing, and it has added up. The official
Speaker 4: snowfall total this season is sixteen point eight inches. Just
Speaker 4: shy is seventeen inches? Does that sound a little That
Speaker 4: sounds a little high if you're not really thinking about it,
Speaker 4: me too, But doesn't that sound hot?
Speaker 2: Figure inches? Is that the logan airport figure?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is logan, And of course that tends are
Speaker 4: and lower than most of our northern west. It starts
Speaker 4: logan sixteen point eight about seventeen. Compare that to what
Speaker 4: is considered average historical average for the first week of February,
Speaker 4: where total normally would be twenty seven and a half inches.
Speaker 4: So yes, we're below average by a little more than
Speaker 4: ten inches ten and a half or so, but not
Speaker 4: extraordinary low. It's not like we're in a snow drought.
Speaker 4: We are. We just heard that report overall drought. In
Speaker 4: terms of precipitation liquid precipitation, yes, that's a different story.
Speaker 4: But in terms of snow amounts, it's below average, but
Speaker 4: not astoundingly so. And there was that one storm. I
Speaker 4: want to say, I know there was more than one
Speaker 4: modest storm, but I want to say it was the
Speaker 4: first or second week of January last year. Let me
Speaker 4: see if I can find how much that was. I
Speaker 4: think it kind of what we would say underachieved. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it was only about four inches, but.
Speaker 2: That was only snow. That's the only snowstorm last winter
Speaker 2: that plow I mean, okay, great, it was a plowable storm. Yeah.
Speaker 4: There was another one close to that on in mid January,
Speaker 4: January sixteenth, there was three and a half inches, and
Speaker 4: then the rest of the month it was just a
Speaker 4: quarter of an inch here, half inch there. And it
Speaker 4: seems to me that February is incredibly quiet. The total
Speaker 4: from the entire month, the entire month of February a
Speaker 4: year ago was a half inch total.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 4: And then in March, where we sometimes had some legendary
Speaker 4: March snowstorms, March was even less than February. Nothing measurable,
Speaker 4: just a trace of snow. So there was just four.
Speaker 2: We got to go back back in a couple of years.
Speaker 2: A year ago. I remember, I have a great friend
Speaker 2: of mine, Mark McCullough, who has a plow, and he'll
Speaker 2: come over, he'll plow for me, and uh, that was
Speaker 2: the one time I saw him, And I don't know
Speaker 2: that there was a plowerable storm. The year before now.
Speaker 4: It was the year yeah, the year before was the
Speaker 4: year that New York City just or a suth broke
Speaker 4: a record for the least amount of snow of a
Speaker 4: winter season ever. And just after New York, Philadelphia had
Speaker 4: no I think it was like a tenth of an
Speaker 4: inch snow for the entire winter season. That was two
Speaker 4: years ago. So the whole Eastern Seaboard is not having
Speaker 4: munch the way of snow for a good solid at
Speaker 4: least two years. You got to go way back.
Speaker 2: And for me, and I don't know, you know this
Speaker 2: better than I do, but for me, you always have
Speaker 2: to start most New Englanders who are alive today with
Speaker 2: the blizzard of.
Speaker 4: Seventy eight, Yeah, legendary.
Speaker 2: Blizzard of seventy eight. You probably were very young. I
Speaker 2: was a little older. Then you got to think about
Speaker 2: the in my opinion, the April first blizzard of April first,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety seven, which was a big storm. And then
Speaker 2: he got to think about the winter of twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: twenty and fifty hardly snowed in November, December, half of January,
Speaker 2: and then it started snowing in the middle of January
Speaker 2: and it wouldn't stop, and we got.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't stop. It was one yeah, one storm after another,
Speaker 4: one storm after another. Yeah, it was. It was crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Basically every like like four to seven days or three
Speaker 4: six days one year lined up. And then and then
Speaker 4: we started running out of places to put the snow
Speaker 4: because it right after it shut. It's not like you
Speaker 4: could clear and push a pile. And then the post
Speaker 4: got harder and higher and higher, and oh it was horrible.
Speaker 2: I have a flat roof on an over porch, and
Speaker 2: I knew at one point I thought, man, this this
Speaker 2: may collapse. The porch was so much out there. So
Speaker 2: I got a trusty shovel, climbed out a window, and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden I realized up to my armpits
Speaker 2: and snow, and I said, you know, if I die,
Speaker 2: no one's going to find me until June. I back
Speaker 2: in that window. But I didn't realize even how deep
Speaker 2: it was it was. It piled up.
Speaker 4: It was incredible. I can tell you this, dand I
Speaker 4: can tell you this not and not that we're going
Speaker 4: to repeat that, certainly, hope not. But the weather pattern
Speaker 4: has changed a lot uh this month compared to January January,
Speaker 4: we had a lot of cold weather, not a great
Speaker 4: deal of snow. So far in February hasn't been severely cold,
Speaker 4: but was starting to see more storms again. Up until now,
Speaker 4: they weren't snowstorms or mixed precipitation here and there. But
Speaker 4: we're seeing more storms come across the country. We'll lined
Speaker 4: up one enter or another. We just said mixed precipitation
Speaker 4: just you know, a couple of days back, and then
Speaker 4: we've got this one coming. There's another storm that probably
Speaker 4: primarily misses us to the south on Tuesday, but there's
Speaker 4: one later next week that bears watching. There could be
Speaker 4: a snow or mixed precipitation storm. And they all start
Speaker 4: on the West coast. It's been so terribly dry, as
Speaker 4: we know in California with the horrible wildfires. They're starting
Speaker 4: to get rain out there now and heavy stone in
Speaker 4: the Sierra starting to be a parade to storms. And
Speaker 4: they all march across the country and end up here
Speaker 4: in somewhere in these one one way or another. So
Speaker 4: we'll have to see how long this pattern continues. But
Speaker 4: for the time being, it's looking stormy.
Speaker 2: Well again, I appreciate it, bof You're taking the time.
Speaker 2: Do you have to work this weekend or no?
Speaker 4: I do not, and don't tell anyone. I don't want to,
Speaker 4: you know, yes, Bob Martin, we'll bring him in.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, but no, management is not listening. Okay, Friday
Speaker 2: night at night, that's true, Tue A great time you
Speaker 2: and I that are holding the fort, you know. So Hey, Bob,
Speaker 2: I appreciate it very much. You're always great to deal with,
Speaker 2: and uh, tonight it was a command performance. I said,
Speaker 2: we got to talk about this storm because I think
Speaker 2: it's going to be for real. You do as well,
Speaker 2: your opinion council a lot more than mine. But we're
Speaker 2: going to talk about it for the next hour or so.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Bob, appreciate it, staying my pleasure.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we'll try you as well. It's always good to
Speaker 4: talk to you.
Speaker 2: Have a good evening, right back at you, you too,
Speaker 2: have a good weekend. All right, here's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 2: Gonna take a break, Gonna give out the phone number
Speaker 2: six one seven two four ten thirty six one seven
Speaker 2: nine three one ten thirty. My question is this Are
Speaker 2: you looking forward to this? I kind of am. I
Speaker 2: hate to admit it, but It's been a long winter
Speaker 2: without mush snow, and I'm thinking, let's have a little
Speaker 2: snowstorm that you know, maybe four to eight inches will
Speaker 2: be fine and we'll all be satisfied. I also want
Speaker 2: to know if how many of you remember the blizzard
Speaker 2: of seventy eight, what you were doing? Where were you?
Speaker 2: I know what I was doing. I was working as
Speaker 2: a TV reporter. The April first blizzard of nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 2: they called it the April Fools Stay blizzard. I remember
Speaker 2: that vividly, vividly, and I have a couple of stories
Speaker 2: about that. And then the season of twenty fourteen to
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen, we were a snow barren. There was no
Speaker 2: snow to speak of until the middle of January, and
Speaker 2: then it didn't stop. We're hardy New Englanders. If you're
Speaker 2: listening outside of New England at this time and you
Speaker 2: want to tell us a snow story, let's just get
Speaker 2: ready for the snow. And have you gotten to the
Speaker 2: store today and bought some bread, some eggs and some milk,
Speaker 2: so you I mean that is a tradition. And also,
Speaker 2: don't forget get some witchy, a washer fluid and a shovel.
Speaker 2: Remember that all right, let's have some fun with this.
Speaker 2: We're in New England. As we can handle it. Six one, seven,
Speaker 2: two four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one
Speaker 2: ten thirty. It's a Friday night. Let's have a little fun.
Speaker 2: Coming back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nights Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Let's go to the phones right away. Gonna start off
Speaker 2: with Maureen and Brockton. Maureen, have you battened down the
Speaker 2: hatches yet?
Speaker 5: Pretty close?
Speaker 1: Dan?
Speaker 2: How are you? I'm doing great? Thanks for calling in
Speaker 2: my favorite listeners and callers. What do you think You're ready?
Speaker 2: You ready?
Speaker 5: Well, it's really not in my hands. So whatever the
Speaker 5: fall is gonna fall, I just haven't deal with it.
Speaker 5: I'm not happy. But I have to tell you real quick.
Speaker 5: So I was a senior in high school during the
Speaker 5: nineteen seventy eight, and honest to goodness, I was really concerned,
Speaker 5: not about the snow. But I went to Saint Colin
Speaker 5: Kills High School in Brighton, and so we always graduated
Speaker 5: in May. And my thought was, oh, good grief, you
Speaker 5: know we're gonna have to make up this time. And
Speaker 5: the senior class won't graduate until the middle of June,
Speaker 5: so that was my somehow.
Speaker 2: I will bet you graduated on time.
Speaker 5: Yes, thank goodness, we did. But no, you know, it's
Speaker 5: you know, we we have been lucky. And I'm not
Speaker 5: a fan of the snow, even though I've lived here
Speaker 5: all my life. But you know, if it's going to fall,
Speaker 5: it's out of my control. I just have to, you know,
Speaker 5: just wait and see like everyone else.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I mean, we'll be okay. I only
Speaker 2: got scared a year ago or so. When I heard
Speaker 2: that this storm, they had this fancy phrase. You might
Speaker 2: remember it. Remember, they said, this storm is coming down
Speaker 2: from Canada and it involves a bombo genesis. And I
Speaker 2: thought to myself, what the heck is a bombo genesis.
Speaker 2: I thought he was a relief pitcher like in the
Speaker 2: National League, who I never had heard of. But I
Speaker 2: guess it's a specific Someone out there who's more scientifically
Speaker 2: oriented than me will be able to tell us. But
Speaker 2: I guess it was some sort of combination Latin phrase
Speaker 2: like meaning like a snow bomb. But I remembered that phrase,
Speaker 2: bombo genesis. I thought to myself, if I ever was
Speaker 2: involved in like writing a book or a play or
Speaker 2: starting a band. I would call it Bombo genesis because
Speaker 2: it was just had a nice ring to it. Did
Speaker 2: you remember that phrase at all?
Speaker 5: Or no? It does sound familiar and I want to
Speaker 5: touch I know you've got lots of calls. I like
Speaker 5: this short and sweet. But going back to twenty fourteen
Speaker 5: to twenty fifteen, I had just started my new job
Speaker 5: in Hingham, Massachusetts, and the thing that drove me crazy,
Speaker 5: I felt and you know, some meteorologists to me, it
Speaker 5: was like they had to hit that hundred inches of
Speaker 5: snow and I thought, well, honest to goodness, you know,
Speaker 5: we don't need another inch. And then I remember driving
Speaker 5: home and it was the funniest sight because somebody, you know,
Speaker 5: in my neighborhood and they had shoveled and they had
Speaker 5: a big sign and it said free snow.
Speaker 2: A little humor, A little humor. Now I've never heard anyone.
Speaker 2: We used to go out and do those live shots
Speaker 2: and you try to find like the biggest snow pile
Speaker 2: in that year. I wasn't in TV anymore, but the
Speaker 2: reporters had a really easy time. They could go to
Speaker 2: any street corner and find, you know, snow, piles that
Speaker 2: were still around in May and they hadn't melted yet.
Speaker 2: But hey, that's not worth facing this weekend. But it's
Speaker 2: more of a rigulous snowstorm, which which is good as
Speaker 2: far as I'm concerned. Let's get have one good snowstorm,
Speaker 2: get out of the way, and get ready for watching
Speaker 2: spring training. Simple as that. It's a perfect time.
Speaker 5: I'm with you, Dan, Thank you so much, and I've
Speaker 5: got more people. You have a wonderful even have a
Speaker 5: great weekend, Mauri.
Speaker 2: Thanks for your loyalty to the to the program. I
Speaker 2: really mean that. You're one of my favorites. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much, Thank you so much. Tonight, right, good night,
Speaker 2: take a quick break here, we got news at the
Speaker 2: bottom of the hour. Your recollections of a snowstorm. Anybody
Speaker 2: remember Bombo Genesis. Yeah, that was a big storm. We'll
Speaker 2: be back on nice side right after this.
Speaker 1: You're on the Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's
Speaker 1: news radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, back to the phones we go, going to go
Speaker 2: to Mary in Rhode Island. Mary, Welcome to Night Side.
Speaker 6: How are you welcome. I'm so happy to talk to you.
Speaker 6: I've been trying to call and call and call, so
Speaker 6: here I.
Speaker 2: Am all right, Mary, about.
Speaker 6: Bristol, Bristol right on the waterfront. It's beautiful here, beautiful, beautiful,
Speaker 6: been here all my life and I've listened to you
Speaker 6: for years and years and I've never called. But I'm
Speaker 6: here tonight, Yes I am. I need to tell you.
Speaker 6: That's seventy eight. Blizzard just took this the time for everybody,
Speaker 6: especially in our street, in our neighborhood, out playing in
Speaker 6: the snow, communicating, talking, playing games in the house, playing
Speaker 6: games we never played before. And I thought it was
Speaker 6: the best thing that ever happened to us.
Speaker 2: I obviously it was pretty scary initially, Oh it was.
Speaker 2: It was you got to know your neighbors, didn't you.
Speaker 6: Yes, you did. You got to know a lot of
Speaker 6: people you never saw other than in a I'm going
Speaker 6: by or walking you know.
Speaker 5: So that was I.
Speaker 2: Did a TV star. I was working for w b Z.
Speaker 2: I was a young reporter, and I went to my
Speaker 2: parents' home in Readville, UH and helped shovel the snow
Speaker 2: as part of the story. The neighbors were out there, everybody.
Speaker 6: Was everybody, and kids, our kids built a snow h
Speaker 6: what do you call it?
Speaker 2: Snow ford?
Speaker 6: Snow Ford, Yes, thank you very much. A huge snowfall,
Speaker 6: and they played in that thing all for weeks and weeks.
Speaker 6: It didn't melt at all. It really didn't, you know.
Speaker 6: And I also want.
Speaker 2: To go ahead, No, I just go ahead.
Speaker 6: Oh and I just want to say congratulations on your
Speaker 6: four thousand show yesterday. I tried to get in and
Speaker 6: I couldn't, so I just wanted to say, what a
Speaker 6: what a wonderful thing.
Speaker 2: How'd you find us? Have you been a busy listener
Speaker 2: for most of.
Speaker 6: You years and years and not really? I listened to
Speaker 6: all talk shows, but I found you years ago, and
Speaker 6: I listened every single night, but I listened to the
Speaker 6: Rhode Island stations during the day.
Speaker 2: Well, you know what Mary, I want to send since
Speaker 2: your first time caller and you're such a loyal listener,
Speaker 2: I want you to leave your address with rob.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, I.
Speaker 2: Want to send you a gift from our friends at
Speaker 2: college Hype. I want to send you a nightside coffee mug.
Speaker 2: Are you a coffee drinker?
Speaker 3: Oh my god?
Speaker 6: Oh I am. I would love one day and love
Speaker 6: one Okay.
Speaker 2: Will you stay right there, make sure you yep?
Speaker 6: Can you tell me just one more thing when your
Speaker 6: man was down that was substituting for you. He had
Speaker 6: a caller on Wednesday night, I think it was that
Speaker 6: called in and was talking about a movie that had
Speaker 6: been out and it was in that third season and
Speaker 6: it was about alcoholics anonymous, and it was a funny movie.
Speaker 6: And I can't remember the name of it. Does anybody
Speaker 6: know what the name of it was?
Speaker 2: Well, if anyone was listening, I was. I was not.
Speaker 2: I listened a little bit. I was out of town
Speaker 2: for a couple of days and then came back on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: It was Wednesday night. Gary Tangway was subbing for me
Speaker 2: that night, and maybe Rob might remember that. It's yeah.
Speaker 2: The other thing, are you good on a website? Mary,
Speaker 2: Because if I am, I am okay, all you got
Speaker 2: to do is go to Nightside on demand dot com.
Speaker 2: Okay Side on demand dot com. Rob will give you
Speaker 2: that you have it, and then you can just scroll back.
Speaker 2: We post every night the four hours of the show,
Speaker 2: So that hour Wednesday night, if you said it was
Speaker 2: in the nine o'clock or hour or.
Speaker 6: The I think it was the nine o'clock or at
Speaker 6: the ten o'clock I'm not sure which.
Speaker 2: Rob can probably help you with that. A little bit
Speaker 2: and be able to pin it down for you. So
Speaker 2: unless someone calls in and because said can can give
Speaker 2: us the name tomorrow when you get a chance to
Speaker 2: Nightside under me in dot com and scroll back.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I will, I will thank you so much, address and
Speaker 2: your phone number and we will get a beautiful, dark
Speaker 2: blue thank you night Side coffee mug.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, I love it.
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 6: Thank you so much. Congratulations again. No I won't, I won't.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Mary, appreciate it very very kind
Speaker 2: of you to call and to and we did four thousand,
Speaker 2: our four thousandth show last night, which for me is
Speaker 2: a pretty good accomplishment. Let me go to Ruth at Uxbridge. Hi, Ruth,
Speaker 2: welcome next to Nightside.
Speaker 3: Hi Dane, holl are you I'm doing.
Speaker 2: Greaty getting ready and getting excited about the snow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's gonna look beautiful. And congratulations sign your four
Speaker 3: thousand show the other night too. Last night, I'm going
Speaker 3: to listen.
Speaker 5: To w BC.
Speaker 3: For so many years, since I was a kid, I
Speaker 3: used to get up with Kyle the sous in the morning.
Speaker 3: My mother be downstairs yelling, get up, you've got to
Speaker 3: go to school and I'm saying, but I knew what
Speaker 3: the songs and stuff were on that. I knew what
Speaker 3: time it was by what the music was on the review.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely no. WBZ has been such a fixture in
Speaker 2: New England for all these years, and names like Carl
Speaker 2: de Suzits and I knew. I didn't know him well,
Speaker 2: but I worked in television when he was finishing his
Speaker 2: career in radio, and well, quite a gentleman, there's no
Speaker 2: doubt about that. So which is which storm would you
Speaker 2: like to remind us of or talk about?
Speaker 3: Okay, I am looking at right now. I dug it
Speaker 3: out last night, and I've got a full page copy
Speaker 3: of the Boston Sunday Club stated February nineteenth, nineteenth seventy eight,
Speaker 3: and I'm looking at an aerial view of because in
Speaker 3: a truck. If this is a big sheet, you know,
Speaker 3: a big newspaper with about twelve thirteen pages, and it's
Speaker 3: all on the blizzard of seventy eight. It's showing all
Speaker 3: these cards that are trapped in the snow on one
Speaker 3: twenty eight or one of those. Now, there was a reporter,
Speaker 3: I don't sorry, a meteorologist. I don't recognize the name.
Speaker 3: Maybe you would a Francis Rex Road.
Speaker 2: No, it doesn't ring a bell, but that's okay, okay.
Speaker 3: So I don't know where he was from, but anyhow,
Speaker 3: he was trying to figure out whether we were going
Speaker 3: to have this blizzard or just what was going to happen.
Speaker 3: And finally it wasn't until he said, it wasn't until
Speaker 3: Sunday night and early Monday morning that his worst fears
Speaker 3: began to materialize. And it was saying something about fourth
Speaker 3: as the warm earstorm myth, the met the force b
Speaker 3: the cold air mass, and things started churning. And so
Speaker 3: through Sunday they started saying, oh, we're going to be
Speaker 3: getting something on Monday morning. But what it goes on
Speaker 3: to say, well, we shouldn't mind, you know, we're just
Speaker 3: going to get some snow. You know, after all, hadn't
Speaker 3: they just come hadn't we just come through a storm
Speaker 3: Billy two weeks before, which had jumped a record twenty
Speaker 3: one point six inches of snow on the Boston area,
Speaker 3: And but they just they just figured it was going
Speaker 3: to be another snowstorm. Now. The reason I remember it
Speaker 3: so well is my husband and I lived in Reading.
Speaker 3: He worked for a company called They Now call it
Speaker 3: bb X. If you see the big trucks on the road,
Speaker 3: it was Boston Buffalo Express. He got up in that
Speaker 3: first snow storm, had to spend two or three days
Speaker 3: at the terminal in Boston. He couldn't get home. That
Speaker 3: was on that first storm. So when this second storm came,
Speaker 3: and when the blizzard started coming in, he said, he
Speaker 3: told the boss, he said, I don't care what's happening.
Speaker 3: I'm brought on the trailer and I am going home.
Speaker 3: And so and he did. He got home and was
Speaker 3: home for the blizzard. And once the blizzard was over,
Speaker 3: I mean people was, they were skiing. They got pictures
Speaker 3: of it skiing down the center of Redding, the town
Speaker 3: of Redding.
Speaker 2: Absolutely no question about it. Yeah, I will tell you
Speaker 2: that I was living in downtown Boston at the time,
Speaker 2: and I remember going out. I was called into work
Speaker 2: a little early and I thought, okay, it's a regular storm.
Speaker 2: I remember I did in that first storm. I had
Speaker 2: I drove at that time. You probably no one knows
Speaker 2: remembers the type of cars called the Dodge Dart, and
Speaker 2: there's a time Stoo drive. I was going into that
Speaker 2: tunnel after the first storm, I hit a little bit
Speaker 2: of ice. I did a three sixty going into the
Speaker 2: tunnel and never hit either side of the wall. It
Speaker 2: was America and so on. You know, February Monday. That Monday,
Speaker 2: the bean Pot tournament was starting and all of that
Speaker 2: it was a snowstorm. Went to work. Uh, They told
Speaker 2: us you might want to bring a change of clothes
Speaker 2: just in case. We ended up staying at the Ramata
Speaker 2: In for two or three days, which was close to
Speaker 2: you know WBZ. We worked all day on Monday. We
Speaker 2: waded through hip deep snow to go to the Ramada
Speaker 2: Inn at midnight after the eleven o'clock news. I worked
Speaker 2: the six and eleven at that time, and we got
Speaker 2: to the hotel. All the food was gone because they
Speaker 2: had they had sent all the clerical staff, the secretaries,
Speaker 2: et cetera, the manager, the salespeople. They were like locust.
Speaker 2: They ate all the food. We're walking over in the
Speaker 2: middle of the blizzard at midnight saying that's great, we'll
Speaker 2: get a nice late dinner. There was nothing there, so
Speaker 2: the only thing you could have would be like a
Speaker 2: couple of beers and peanuts. And they call me at
Speaker 2: like four o'clock in the morning. I'd just gone to sleep,
Speaker 2: and they said, Jack Chase can't get in from Wellesley.
Speaker 2: You're anchoring the morning newscast. They says, look, Jack Williams
Speaker 2: called Jack. He's an anchor. I'm just a reporter, and
Speaker 2: they said he won't answer his phone. I got up,
Speaker 2: put on every piece of clothing I had thought I
Speaker 2: was going to die, walked from the rod Inn to WBZ.
Speaker 2: Somehow found the front door. You couldn't see. I mean,
Speaker 2: it was whiteout conditions. I walked in. I was a mess.
Speaker 2: It was about ten minutes and I went on the air.
Speaker 2: Don Kent was there. He was at the board. John Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was reading the no school announcements, which was basically everything.
Speaker 2: And that's my first remembrance of the blizzard of seventy eight.
Speaker 2: So yeah, we had similar stories, similar stories. I remember
Speaker 2: those cars stranded on U. Originally there were some comments
Speaker 2: that people had died out there. There No one died
Speaker 2: in those cars, not.
Speaker 3: In those because they got out and they walked. There
Speaker 3: was an armory nearby, and they were walking to there
Speaker 3: to people's houses. People took them in because I only
Speaker 3: lived about half a mile from there. But when the
Speaker 3: blizzard finally got over, and nobody could go on the
Speaker 3: roads you were. You were grounded for the police. And
Speaker 3: when they finally let they got calls in for you know,
Speaker 3: your police fight upon and then everybody they they were working,
Speaker 3: those people were working, and then they got My husband
Speaker 3: got the call to come into work if if you
Speaker 3: were out like a big rig he drove. It was
Speaker 3: for four you know, big truck. And he went in
Speaker 3: and went to work and he said, you know, we
Speaker 3: got stopped and asked because you couldn't be on the roads.
Speaker 2: We had Yeah, we had passes as well because we
Speaker 2: were doing live reports. And a matter of fact, someone
Speaker 2: uh in in Nevada from Massachusetts who's a friend of mine,
Speaker 2: looked at the WBZ website and there's a shot of
Speaker 2: me yesterday, Jack Williams on anchoring and I was out
Speaker 2: on a bridge over the expressway and at the height
Speaker 2: of the storm. And my friend from many many years ago,
Speaker 2: she is She sent me a text and she said,
Speaker 2: I looked at this video today. Was that you? I said, yes,
Speaker 2: it was, yes, it was. Uh. You know, you've been
Speaker 2: a great nightside Listen. We're going to get you a
Speaker 2: nightside mug too. Okay, I want you to leave it.
Speaker 2: The name and address will get you a Nightside coffee mug.
Speaker 2: So the next time you're having coffee, think of our conversation.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'll think of it when I'm drinking my hot
Speaker 3: coco with the marshmallow in that coco.
Speaker 2: And marshmallow my favorite as well. Don't hang up, Rob
Speaker 2: will take that information. Okay, thank you so much, Ruth.
Speaker 2: We'll take a quick break here on Nightside twelve minutes
Speaker 2: before ten. We can continue to talk about this into
Speaker 2: the next hour. I think this is fun. This is
Speaker 2: this is really what North America's back porch is all about.
Speaker 2: Storm's coming. Step up on the porch and tell us
Speaker 2: your story back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray, mine from the window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Whether it's miserable, the traffic is miserable, and your inside
Speaker 2: stay there. That is your humble TV reporter from nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy eight met Dan Ray reporting on WBZTV at the
Speaker 2: height of the blizzard of seventy eight. Back to the calls,
Speaker 2: we go gonna go to who's next here? Pattison, Weymouth,
Speaker 2: pat you are next on Nightside, Go right ahead, Hi,
Speaker 2: er hi Dot.
Speaker 3: I am from Buffalo, New York, and you had the
Speaker 3: blizzard of seventy eight.
Speaker 5: We had hours as.
Speaker 3: Seventy seven, and it's known as the Blizzard of seventy seven,
Speaker 3: and it was the exact same circumstances. The city was paralyzed.
Speaker 3: Cars were stranded on the throughway. There was one time
Speaker 3: that I saw two buses that had pulled over. They
Speaker 3: were almost flipped and the passengers were still on it.
Speaker 3: People were out cross country skiing. There was there was
Speaker 3: a bar close by and people were going in there
Speaker 3: walking and some of the people from one of the
Speaker 3: buses had gone to their bar to just wait it out,
Speaker 3: I guess. And they brought ambulances in three ambulances and
Speaker 3: all the passengers from the bus. They weren't injured, but
Speaker 3: they that was the only, I guess, vehicle that could
Speaker 3: get to them.
Speaker 2: Wow, New York. Yeah, you guys have had some tough
Speaker 2: snowstorms over the here's up there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, I know, but everybody talks about seventy
Speaker 3: eight and I always talk about seventy seven. And a
Speaker 3: personal story. I was twenty nine at the time I
Speaker 3: worked downtown. I had a four year old daughter who
Speaker 3: was in a daycare center. Of course, there's no cell phones,
Speaker 3: and we could connect with I could connect with the
Speaker 3: daycare center and obviously tell them I'm not going to
Speaker 3: be there. And the kids were all there or stranded
Speaker 3: because parents couldn't get there, and they were having There
Speaker 3: was a pizza par a, pizza parallel right across the street,
Speaker 3: and all they were eating was pizza. And I stayed
Speaker 3: overnight at a friend's house two or three nights, and
Speaker 3: then I was very anxious because I wanted to get
Speaker 3: to my daughter. I wanted to get home. I wanted
Speaker 3: to make sure she was okay. And a friend of
Speaker 3: mine had a four wheel drive truck jeep, so he said,
Speaker 3: come on, I'll give it a shot. So God love him.
Speaker 3: He got me to the take care center and I
Speaker 3: went in. I was the first parent there, and my
Speaker 3: daughter didn't want any part of me. She was four
Speaker 3: years old. She was hiving a ball. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: run out on pizza. Pizza.
Speaker 2: Oh that's great. So you've relocated to Boston, I.
Speaker 3: Assume, right, yeah, about fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2: Uh, we'll watch you back to Boston. Why would you
Speaker 2: ever leave a city like Buffalo, beautiful as it is, Richard.
Speaker 3: Hey, the Bills, I wish they were in the Super Bowl,
Speaker 3: but Josh Hale and got moster MDP.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no that I was written for you Bills. Maybe
Speaker 2: next year. Maybe next year, keep one for Buffalo before
Speaker 2: the Patriots get back together. Pat thank you so much
Speaker 2: for calling. Have you ever call before? Now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, I have. I called a couple of times.
Speaker 3: I will just wanted to put in my regards.
Speaker 5: To the Buffalo.
Speaker 2: All right, absolutely so, we got a lot of listeners
Speaker 2: in Buffalo. Maybe we'll hear from someone next hour.
Speaker 3: Okay, pegs bat yep, Okay, thanks a lot. Nice talking
Speaker 3: to you.
Speaker 2: Good to talk to you as well. Linda is in Waymouth. Linda,
Speaker 2: I got a couple of minutes herefore, you want to
Speaker 2: get you in under the wire. How are you hi?
Speaker 6: Pretty well?
Speaker 7: I can't believe how cold has been and windy combination.
Speaker 7: And I went out looking for ice melt uh huh.
Speaker 7: The only place I got it was from a auto shop.
Speaker 2: Well, Lisia got some hopefully hopefully whatever hits uh, we'll
Speaker 2: be gone in a few days. We'll have to see what.
Speaker 7: I shared around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's gonna it's gonna be tough, but you're
Speaker 2: you're in New England, are you you can handle it right?
Speaker 5: Ah?
Speaker 7: Yes, But I'm an older New Englander and.
Speaker 2: All older New Englanders at this point, but.
Speaker 7: I am a former skier and that you know. I
Speaker 7: go into work or different places and I do a comparison.
Speaker 7: I said, how many layers do you have? You can
Speaker 7: always take off the layers if you put them on,
Speaker 7: but you can't put on if you don't have them.
Speaker 7: And I've seen guys, football player types, guys walking around
Speaker 7: short sleeves and shorts on with the wind and the boo.
Speaker 2: Yep, Okay, they won't be doing that tomorrow. I'll think.
Speaker 7: I've seen them. Anyways. My Blizzards of seventy eighth story
Speaker 7: I remember seeing on the radio, from the radio on
Speaker 7: the TV, the stories that pitches that the ladies have
Speaker 7: spoken of. My story is that I worked at a
Speaker 7: halfway center for special needs young people workshop and mine
Speaker 7: was a clerical unit and we got dismissed. We weren't
Speaker 7: I mean, I wasn't really expecting a big thing, so
Speaker 7: I left what needed to be marked over, you know,
Speaker 7: the home they worked. It was done during the day
Speaker 7: I had to take I should have been taking it
Speaker 7: home to correct it. At home, I said, I'll get
Speaker 7: in tomorrow, arg you tomorrow, and it's not much here.
Speaker 2: Probably a week later you corrected those papers, I will
Speaker 2: bet exactly.
Speaker 7: And I was kicking myself and I said, oh my goodness,
Speaker 7: I did get my cross country skis. I'm really a
Speaker 7: downhill skier, but I did have a pair of cross
Speaker 7: countries that I borrowed to go back and forth the
Speaker 7: street and give some neighbors a hand with a shoveling.
Speaker 2: Good for you, Good for you, Linda. I got you
Speaker 2: under the wire, but I got the ten o'clock news
Speaker 2: and we both got to get out of there. I mean,
Speaker 2: thanks so much for Colin. We'll talk soon, okay, stay
Speaker 2: stay good day, Thanks good night. Okay, we'll take a break.
Speaker 2: If you're on the line, John, Florence Alis Terry, stay
Speaker 2: there only line opened six. Let's keep talking about this
Speaker 2: because hey, it's New England. We can talk about it
Speaker 2: here on the North America's Backboarch coming back on nightside
Speaker 2: right after the ten o'clock news,