The Great Lakes Blizzard of January 1971 affected almost the entire Great Lakes region of North America, as well as the western St. Lawrence Valley and northern New England between January 25 and 28, 1971 before a second severe snowstorm hit many of the same areas between January 28 and 31, 1971. The areas that felt the fiercest effects of the dual storms, that being moderate or heavy snow, sustained high winds, and zero visibility due to blowing snow, included southern Wisconsin, most of Michigan, Southern Ontario, northeastern Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania, most of upstate New York and Southern Quebec, while northern Wisconsin, northern Indiana, northeastern Ontario, and northern Vermont experienced blizzard conditions from the first of the storms.
The only part of the Great Lakes not impacted was the northern area of Lake Superior. Weather related to the first storm system also inflicted gale-force winds on areas just south of the Great Lakes, on the Central Appalachian Mountains and on much of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, particularly, from North Carolina to Maryland, and on Maine. Several major metropolitan areas were hit by the dual blizzards, although most did not have major snowfalls; London, Ontario with , Quebec City with , and Rochester, New York with were the cities with the most snowfall, with areas around London (the Lake Huron Region of Southwestern Ontario) and Rochester (west-central New York) being subjected to all or part of six consecutive days of blizzard conditions and/or snowfall. The single highest snowfall was in Paisley, Ontario, which, over seven days, saw of snow.
The storms left at least 34 people dead in the United States and 14 people dead in Canada with numerous persons injured from traffic accidents or other mishaps, such as train derailments or falling glass. Schools, businesses, major highways and secondary roads were closed or blocked for at least a day throughout most of the affected states/provinces and in the most heavily affected portions of those jurisdictions (often areas impacted by both storms), these items were closed or blocked for up to a week, intra- and inter-city bus service was halted, flights were cancelled, train travel was delayed, large power outages occurred, thousands of vehicles had to be abandoned, and tens of thousands of people, including thousands of students, were stranded for between one and three nights.
Meteorological history
A low pressure system formed on the northern Great Plains of the US, and started erratically moving eastward supported by high-level winds that were pushing cold air southward from the Arctic. By late January 25, the low pressure system had deepened and had been joined by a smaller disturbance from the U.S. Southwest to become massive in size and moved over the western Great Lakes, accelerated by a strong high pressure system to its west. Its leading edge moving at ), it broadened into a cold front covering a large area of central North America from the Upper Great Lakes to the southern Appalachian Mountains, with cold wave warnings being issued for as far south as Arkansas, Alabama and Georgia.
The low pressure system moved over the relatively warm Great Lakes and into Michigan, Southern Ontario and Upstate New York on January 26, drawing in moisture from the Lakes which, along with winds gusting as high as , created blizzard conditions in the surrounding areas, with some areas receiving heavy snowfall. The front edge of the blizzard quickly moved into the St. Lawrence Valley and rampaged through northwestern New England and southern Quebec on January 27, dropping heavy snow, hail and sleet. Later on January 27, the storm had two centers—one over central Maine and the other over Quebec City—and its strength began to weaken in Maine before it moved into southern New Brunswick and then Nova Scotia. The southern portion of the cold front moved rapidly through the Central Appalachians and the Eastern Seaboard from North Carolina to Maryland the afternoon of January 26, creating winds up to for up to two days, together with variable precipitation, including hail, rain and, in parts of the Appalachians, snow.
A second major but narrower snowstorm/low pressure system arose in North and South Dakota on January 28, brought snow to Iowa and Minnesota, and gained intensity as it briskly moved through Wisconsin, the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan, Southern Ontario, northwestern Pennsylvania, upstate New York and southern Quebec. It brought snow and high winds up to , causing severe snow drifting and low visibility conditions, in some regions until January 30. As a result, certain areas, including Southwestern Ontario and the western half of New York, received snow and high winds for all or parts of five to six straight days, crippling those areas for the entire period, including shutting down schools and industries and stranding travellers.
Overall impact Neither of the storms are on the US National Weather Service's (NWS) Regional Snowfall Index lists for the Upper Midwest, Upper Ohio Valley or Northeastern US, although this Index focuses on snowfall and the size of population affected by snowfall whereas the greatest impact of these storms was their winds causing blizzard conditions and high drifts of snow, not uniformly high snowfall. Further, the areas of greatest snowfall were in Ontario in the leeward side of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, and in Quebec City area, both within Canada, which are not considered in the US Regional Snowfall Index.
While damage occurred due to high winds and private and public road transportation was severely affected in major urban centres such as Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Buffalo, it was London with , Quebec City with , Rochester with , Syracuse, New York with , Ottawa with , and Montreal with which had the most snow from five or six days of storm conditions. Smaller centres with the greatest snowfalls included: Paisley, Ontario with over a week, Oswego, New York with , Watertown, New York, with , and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan with .
Some of the most severe impacts of the dual blizzards were on the London/Lake Huron Region of Southern Ontario, and most of Western and Central New York; in these areas blizzard conditions of less than a quarter-mile (400 m) visibility lasted for 32 and 29 non-stop hours, respectively, on January 26 and 27 resulting in the blockage and later closure of Highway 401 between London and various sections to its east at various times over two days and the complete closure of the entire New York State Thruway west of Utica for almost two days. Both freeways were formally closed again during the second blizzard on January 29. During both closures hundreds of people needed to find sudden overnight accommodation, such as at highway service centres, government buildings and hotels. Thirteen counties in New York banned all vehicular travel on roads and highways during the first blizzard, while numerous highways in Ontario's Lake Huron Region were formally closed or totally blocked by snow for two to three days. Over 20,000 students in Ontario were not able to be transported home from school on January 26 and had to spend between one and three nights at their schools or billeted at homes in the communities; some schools boards kept some or all of their schools closed for four to six days because many rural roads were not fully cleared due to ongoing drifting of snow. Significant numbers of students and workers in the Rochester-area were also stranded overnight.
Many parts of Michigan also experienced completely blocked or closed roads and closed schools, as did much of Southern Quebec. In Montreal, blizzard conditions lasted 16 consecutive hours and the port was closed for January 27. Northeastern Ohio had thousands of people stranded due to the second blizzard and Interstate 90 in the adjacent area of Pennsylvania was closed for a time period. The second blizzard hit Wisconsin very hard resulting in five counties closing all their roads during that storm. All of the above areas pulled snow plows from their roads for extended periods due to absolute zero visibility conditions making collisions with marooned vehicles probable.
Fatalities and injuries
At least 15 persons died in the US from the first blizzard. At least four fatalities were in New York, six in Michigan, two in Pennsylvania and one in Indiana, with a total of seven being traffic-accident related, two being heart attacks, one being train-related, one being a pedestrian struck by a car, and one person being trapped in their car. By January 28, there were reports of more than 50 injuries from the Midwest to New England from the first storm, which would include numerous injuries due to high winds in cities like Chicago, Cleveland and Cincinnati, some south of the blizzard zone.
The second storm caused at least 19 fatalities in the US, six each in New York and Michigan, five in Wisconsin, and two in Pennsylvania. Eleven of the deaths were by traffic accidents, four were heart attacks from shovelling snow, two pedestrians were hit by vehicles, one person died from exposure, and one person drowned.
In Ontario, six persons died from the first blizzard: two people were hit by cars, one died in a traffic accident, a fourth died from a heart attack when trying to dig his truck out of a snowdrift, and two died from exposure. During the second blizzard, three persons died in a car-tanker truck accident. In Quebec, six persons died from the first blizzard, two from heart attacks, two pedestrians were stuck by cars, one death was from a traffic accident and one death was train related. No fatalities were reported in Quebec due to the second storm.
Midwest U.S. Wisconsin The first storm system hit Wisconsin and northern Illinois late on January 25, dropping as much as of snow on parts of Wisconsin, resulting in the closure of many schools for January 26. The second, narrower storm, which moved through on late January 28 and early January 29, three days after the first storm, mainly impacted southern and central Wisconsin with winds causing blizzard conditions which severely inhibited travel, cost five lives in traffic accidents—including a collision with a bus, a collision with a truck, a collision between a tractor-trailer and a salting truck, and a pedestrian being struck—and caused a 100-car pile-up on Interstate 94 in Hudson. Five countries declared all roads closed except for emergency vehicles and some pulled snow clearing equipment of the roads for a period citing them being a safety hazard for other vehicles in the zero visibility conditions and plows themselves ending up in ditches. Green Bay reported a temperature of , taking into account the wind chill, although it escaped the worst of the snow and wind.
Illinois While snow largely missed Chicago, the city was hit with winds that blew out plate-glass windows of several downtown restaurants and stores, and damaged trees, traffic lights, radar equipment at O'Hare Airport, and power lines, leaving about 10,000 residents without electricity. The storm brought extremely cold temperatures, which when coupled with the high winds, produced a wind chill temperature of −55 Fahrenheit (−48 Celsius) in Chicago. Commuter rail from Chicago's southeast was delayed up to 90 minutes by a freak accident in which high winds caused a string of empty coal train cars to roll down a grade in Burns Harbour, Indiana, smashing into a 91-car train, killing one crewperson and seriously injuring two others.
Indiana