1977-78 Winter Season

Original National Weather Service Data Forms submitted by Roy L. Wells, Jr., for the official station of Wise 1 SE located on the campus of University of Virginia’s College At Wise.

The 1977-78 Winter Season

This was the second of back-to-back harsh winters in the mountains, and across most of the eastern United States, with even more snowfall and prolonged snow depth than observed during the 1976-77 Winter ( especially in upper elevations, above 3000 feet, of the High Knob Massif ).

October 1977

Official National Weather Service Report
Official National Weather Service Report For October 1977

November 1977

Official National Weather Service Report
Official National Weather Service Report For November 1977
The first big snowfall event of this winter was a SW Upslope Flow episode featuring 16″ of reported snow depth in Big Stone Gap and 11″ ( at 5 PM observation time ) in Wise on November 27.  This event started a LONG snow cover season in the High Knob Massif.

December 1977

Official National Weather Service Report
Official National Weather Service Report For December 1977

January 1978

Official National Weather Service Report
Official National Weather Service Report For January 1978
Although snow had already been covering upper elevations in the High Knob Massif for a long time ( since November 26 in places ), snowfall on January 9 marked the beginning of another long and harsh wintry period that featured 1″ or more of snow depth at my observing station in Clintwood ( elevation just 1560 feet ) during the entire interval from January 9 to March 11.

February 1978

Official National Weather Service Report
Official National Weather Service Report For February 1978

A deep snowpack developed amid upper elevations of the High Knob Massif, with Otis & Nancy Ward measuring a mean depth of 42″ at their home in the Robinson Knob community of the massif ( elevation 3240 feet ).

*This contrasted with mean snow depths that reached 14″ at my observing station in Clintwood ( elevation 1560 feet ) where around 19 days during the winter featured double digit depths.

Steve Blankenbecler reported depths of more than 4 feet along northern slopes heading into Eagle Knob, where he said it was like “driving through a tunnel” to reach the site for Virginia-Kentucky Communications near the summit.

March 1978

Official National Weather Service Report
Official National Weather Service Report For March 1978

April 1978

Official National Weather Service Report For April 1978
Official National Weather Service Report For April 1978

A general 73″ to 82″ of snowfall was observed in the Wise and Clintwood area during the 1977-78 Winter Season.

It is not known how much snow fell in upper elevations of the High Knob Massif during this 1977-78 season; however, given snow amounts during the past 25 years have tended to be double or more than observed in Wise and Clintwood  it was a significant amount.

The 1977-78 Winter produced an official snowfall total of 26.2″ in the Tri-Cities of the Great Valley of northeastern Tennessee, with 21.1″ in Knoxville.