I saw a weather post today about memories of the January 7-8 blizzard 30 years ago when 2+ feet of snow dropped on the Eastern US. That brought back memories! On January 7, John Hardeman & I set up Flicker - which we had acquired that Fall - on the Hudson River at Barrytown. Jim Kricker & crew set up Greyhound, and Doc Pletcher brought his Lockley Skimmer up from Poughkeepsie. Winds were brisk at times & John & I took turns getting used to our small catboat. I gave rides to a handful of brave souls that came down on a bitter day. Ken Migliorelli and I had several nice sails. I do recall seeing Greyhound out toward the channel doing a 360 - flicker - and watching all occupants of the cockpit flying across the ice. Skipper and passengers quickly recovered and were sailing again in short order.
I guess we knew a storm was approaching and can't say I realized how major it would be. I recall seeing the Rhinecliff Bridge clearly to the south - about a mile or so - around mid day. A bit later it was clear the storm was working its way north and what seemed like a gray fog enveloped the bridge. By 3 or so the view of the Bridge disappeared all together and flakes began to come down heavily. We scrambled to dismantle Flicker and get her tied down on my old Saab. I barely managed to drive home to Tivoli, about 5 miles north. My weather notes from old calendars:
Jan 7 : Flicker on at Barrytown black ice; sailed 11- 4; Blizzard sets in from the south - dismantle in heavy snow storm 5 degrees winds gusty10-20
Jan 7-8 20-24” blizzard
I miss those blizzards from the past... Anyone else recall that storm?
Flicker ( formerly HIC) is a Westchester One Design Class, designed by Robert Mueller , one of the founders of the Eastern Ice Yacht Association. She was built circa 1940 and was part of a fleet of 5 that sailed and raced at Peach Lake in Westchester county. John Childs had her and sailed her with the Westchester Ice Sailing Club. There is one other surviving example of this class that still sails at Peach Lake on occasion.
I remember it well -- there was a lovely sheet of ice at Barrytown. A week later, I was screaming at people to get their boats off the ice. Warm weather followed by 4 inches of warm rain in the Eastern Catskills turned all that snow into a major flood. Huge amounts of thick ice were released down the Schoharie, Mohawk, and Hudson Rivers -- the waterfront at Hudson NY was destroyed by ice. At Barrytown you could see and feel large trees bouncing along under the ice in the flow of the river. All boats were saved before the beautiful sheet broke up in a day and ended a season that looked so promising only days earlier. Here is an account from the NWS:
ReplyDeleteJanuary 19-20, 1996
The Northeast Floods of January 1996 were the result of a very rapid snowmelt punctuated by a short but intense rainfall; 2 to 4 inches of rain. What made this event so unusual was the nature and the intensity of the snowmelt, combined with the intense rainfall for this time of year, over such a large geographical area. The flooding was compounded by ice movement and jamming in many of the rivers and streams. The floods were described by some as a "flash flood" for main-stem rivers due to the unprecedented rates of rise recorded during this event. Record flooding on Schoharie Creek and significant floods on Mohawk River at Schenectady, and on the Hudson at Albany (15.5 feet; greatest since New Years 1949).