Christmas Blizzard 1982

[eddiememphis]

Any of you old farts remember that one?

I was a little kid, so I only remember a few things.

Drifts I couldn't see over. It was VERY bright that morning.

My buddy and I made sweet snow caves.

Dad and the neighbor each dug halfway across the street. They said 'Merry Christmas" in the center, shook hands and, I am quite sure, started drinking.

[BushMasterBoy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVFgEBq0EKM

[00tec]

I remember the one at the Stapleton Airport in 1990. Officer MClane was there.

[XJ]

I have seen pictures from my parents of snow higher than the street-signs, but that was the 70s and not Colorado.


Allegedly my mother slipped and fell in wintry conditions, but I fell into the snow and was not harmed [Neene1]

[BPTactical]

Remember it very, very, very well. I was living off of 58th and Lowell at the time.
I was driving a tow truck at the time and was off that night. Our dispatcher calls me about midnight and says- Hey, you might want to come out, its starting to snow.
No thanks, Im off tonight.
About 2 am she calls back and says- Hey, its really snowing, you probably should get out here.
No! Im tired and Im off!
5 am the boss calls and yells- get your ass out here its snowing like hell. I look outside and couldnt see my truck.
It took me 2 hours to get dug out and to Lowell. I start up Lowell and have to try and get around a knucklehead who is stuck. Guess who the next knucklehead was that got stuck?
Finally got out after one of our large trucks came and drug me up the hill.
It was a motherfucker. Guys were trying to chain up trucks and the chains were getting wrapped up around axles and shit.
I ended up taking the outside wheels off and just rolling on the chained up inner wheels.
I did not get back home for 3 days and the shortest day I had for 2 weeks was about 14 hours.
The towing company I worked for did all of the towing for the City of Denver so abandoned cars etc were ours.
I spent 12 hours on I 25 from 225 to 53rd clearing cars off so the plows could get through. Didnt even bother trying to open them up and knock them out of gear, just drug the sleds off. Most of them we just hooked the sling to the bumper and off we went.
Damages? Fuck you. I watched a CDOT loader pack his bucket with snow and start shoving cars out so I could hook them.
I ended up doing the same thing clearing cars off of 14th from Broadway to Yosemite. 320 some odd cars I moved in one night. I pulled a light pole over winching myself out and the cop just laughed- told me not to worry about it, it was Public Services problem.
I remember dropping a car off in the parking lot of the King Soopers at Monaco and Hampden. A business type guy asked me if I could help him and I asked him what he needed figuring a jump start or such.
He needed a ride to Stapleton Airport.
Im not a taxi- he said he would make it well worth my while. Figured fuck it, I was headed that way to get to the mousetrap anyway. Turned out he was some muckety muck for some oil company and had to be in San Francisco to seal a big deal. Must have been some kind of deal because the $300.00 he gave me was large money in 1982.
Tore the exhaust off of the truck from the snow and ruts and ended up putting race car mufflers from a Lakeside Speedway modified on the truck at like 0200 with snow and ice dripping off of the truck.
On two separate occasions helped out 2 gals with stuck/broken down cars who were VERY, VERY appreciative[Muaha][Muaha][Muaha]
Tows constantly, we hardly ever stopped- if it wasnt a stuck car it was from damage from the 8 inch deep holes and ruts.
Phillips and Anderson Tire at Speer and Zuni said they had never seen so many broken tie rods.

It was quite the two weeks that I can see like it was yesterday, hard assed work but some damn good times too.
It ended up being the death knell for Mayor McNichols and my employer.
It ushered in Federico Pena and began the new Progressive Era that we are now sucking on in its full glory.

[Hummer]

It was quite the two weeks that I can see like it was yesterday, hard assed work but some damn good times too.
It ended up being the death knell for Mayor McNichols and my employer.
It ushered in Federico Pena and began the new Progressive Era that we are now sucking on in its full glory.


I remember it too. The whole Front Range shut down by mid morning. I had a place in Twin Lakes outside Boulder and was fixing a turkey for my folks and my sister's family who would arrive around noon. They stayed home. So did my GF and I, and we had lots of turkey leftovers.

I've since seen a couple bigger snowstorms on the Peak to Peak. Both 5-6 foot snow dumps that closed the highway for days. We could use a few of those this year.

[arbol]

The Christmas and Thanksgiving Blizzards, of 1982/1983, are nice to remind relatives about, but the March 2003 Blizzard is the one that knocked our socks off. That one is unforgettable.

[thedave1164]

The Christmas and Thanksgiving Blizzards, of 1982/1983, are nice to remind relatives about, but the March 2003 Blizzard is the one that knocked our socks off. That one is unforgettable.

My daughter that was born Dec 2003 is a constant reminder lol ��


She just turned 18 ��

[fitterjohn]

Wasn’t alive for the 82. But was a junior in high school for the March of 03. Happened at the end of spring break, got a second week off.

[StagLefty]

Oh yeah that one !!!! I was a maintenance supervisor at an apartment complex in Northglenn, took about 2 weeks to get the place cleared since we ran out of room to put the snow.

[BladesNBarrels]

We were spending Christmas with my sister in Arizona and my wife had to get back to Colorado for an important business meeting.
We landed at Stapleton and nothing was operating.
My brother-in-law had one of those VW diesel pick-ups and came and got us, driving to Golden.
We could not get our car out of Stapleton off-site parking for a week, and they charged us for parking days.
And, to top it off, my wife's meeting was postponed for 2 weeks because no one could get into Denver.
I could have stayed in Arizona and enjoyed the balmy days.

[SideShow Bob]

Well,
This Christmas reminds me of the one I had as a kid in the 60’s & 70’s down in Yuma, AZ.

[earplug]

November 1982 I was driving my Labrador from Columbus GA. To Fort Collins to give to a lady vet student who was recently widowed. Wind and cold was killing cars on the highway. I had orders to Germany. Driving a 1976 Toyota Corolla with about 130K on the meter. Timing chain ate a hole through the timing cover and oil was making a one way trip. Ended up buying cheapest bulk oil possible for the rest of the trip. Made it Home OK. Dog was a special treat for students as she had some common parasites from GA. that were unique in CO. at the time.

[ray1970]

Well,
This Christmas reminds me of the one I had as a kid in the 60?s & 70?s down in Yuma, AZ.

Yep. The weather reminds me of Christmas in southeast Texas.

[Eric P]

Did the 82 blizzard hit Colorado Springs? I was living in Ft. Carson on in the early 80s. 4-7 years old. I do recall a snowstorm around Christmas that buried our front door and parent's cars. We built tunnels between the units.

Mom was a nurse on base and dad was shuttling nurses and docs in his Toyota after a tank plow went through the neighborhood.

[TFOGGER]

I was 16 at the time. spent hours walking around Lakewood, digging out people's cars, shoveling driveways, and generally having a blast(all at no charge to the neighbors, we were just having fun ). The next day, I had to chain up my Datsun station wagon so I could get out to Golden.

[buckshotbarlow]

Best time of my life was that snowstorm. My grandpa, mom and dad all went in on a 3 wheeler for me on the farm after turkey day. Cut some amazing trails in the pasture out back after the snow!

[8Ring]

I lived in Northglenn at the time and my girlfriend (now my wife), an ICU nurse, didn't have to work at Denver General Hospital for a few days. She drove up from Denver on Christmas Eve morning to stay at my place. It started snowing like crazy and we were unable to go to the grocery store to get food for a Christmas dinner. When we got up on Christmas morning, our cars were buried in the condo parking lot. We dug out our cars and realized there was nowhere to go. So we put on our cross-country skis and skied through vacant lots over to the Ranch Country Club about 1/2 miles away. After an hour or two of cross country skiing we went back to my place. opening a bottle of wine, and cobbled together a dinner from whatever was in the fridge. After dinner we listed to Dylan Thomas on the radio narrating his story "A Child's Christmas in Wales". That was our second Christmas together and there have been 39 more since then.

[Martinjmpr]

Yep, my brother and I lived in a duplex near Adams and Colfax. Now it's a super-wealthy neighborhood but back then it was nearly a slum. The Bluebird Theater was just around the corner - now it's a music venue but back then it was a porno theater (really!)

I had an old Travelall with nearly bald tires but it had 4wd and did great in the snow. I made a few bucks ferrying people around from the Airport.

[Martinjmpr]

Thanksgiving 1979 was another big one I remember. We lived in Columbine at the time (about 3 miles from where I live now, in fact.)

[Ah Pook]

My daughter that was born Dec 2003 is a constant reminder lol ��


She just turned 18 ��
Thanks for making me feel old. [blaster]

8' at the house and three days without power. Fun times.

[OtterbatHellcat]

'82 ?....yeah. I was 14 yrs old and spent like a week riding around with my dad in the company service truck either pulling out stuck ambulances, plowing, or shoveling. 1973 F250 chained up on all four did some ass kickin'.

[electronman1729]

My Father in 1982 during the blizzard while he was station at Lowry. Ouray Street in Arora. Before my time.

88926

[Vic Tory]

I remember watching the news after a storm hit Denver during Pe?a's time as Mayor. ('84? '85...?)

Pe?a ordered the municipal trash trucks to drive all over and smash down the snow. (He was from the El Paso area; snow was new to him.) Anyway the roads became like skating rinks!

The reporter on TV was at the Broadway and Speer intersection. While reporting live we got to see four or five spin-outs over the reporter's shoulder ... and at least three of them became crashes.

From here, in The Springs, it was hilarious! I'm sure the people of Denver didn't appreciate it.

[JoeRoss]

Had a 73 Ford 4x4 highboy.
Volunteered to get/drive nurses to the hospitals.

[Hummer]

Ha! A few years after the big blizzard I met U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena and showed him the special wildlife around our mountain home. Although we had different views he was open to listening. Nice guy. I'll spare you the photos.

[Aloha_Shooter]

I wasn't in Colorado yet for the blizzard in '82 but remember the snowfall over Christmas week in '87. My godmother was living in Golden and I started with the Air Force at Lowry AFB on Dec 7th. Told my parents they didn't need to bother booking me a trip home for Christmas because I couldn't see the Air Force telling me to report in on Dec 7th if we were going to get time other than the holiday itself off.

Of course, once I reported in, the instructors told us we were ALL taking leave for 2 weeks (had to go in the hole for it) or stacking books at the base library so I spent the holiday with my godmother's family. Borrowed a buddy's Honda Accord hatchback and parked it against a hillside -- by the end of snowfall, you couldn't tell there was a car there. My godmother's son made money that week using the family Suburban and winch to pull people out of the ditches on Hwy 6, including a tow truck that managed to get stuck!

[brutal]

The Christmas and Thanksgiving Blizzards, of 1982/1983, are nice to remind relatives about, but the March 2003 Blizzard is the one that knocked our socks off. That one is unforgettable.

My folks were visiting on their way to friends in UT and got snowed in for 4 days on that one.

[arbol]

At the time I was online friends with a bunch of people on another forum. Little did I know that when I volunteered to help one of their mother's get to dialysis that it meant I was to spend the day shoveling snow, just to get my (fancy) Ford Explorer 4x4 out of the driveway. I made it to Arapahoe Road, and then her subdivision, and when I arrived, I think the Fire Department passed her over the snow to me. Literally, a fire department ladder over the snow to my truck.

We made it down to her Dialysis place and back.

(They would have taken her if I hadn't got there, but still.)

[Bailey Guns]

I was in northern Japan during that one. Kind of an everyday thing over there. I was in Bailey during the big snow of March 03. 7 or 8 feet on her deck. I was afraid it would collapse. Fortunately my neighbor had a huge front end loader and cleared my driveway enough that we could get to the highway. We didn't have power for about 4 days or so.