The sun rose around 6 a.m. on Saturday, March 13, 1993. It was cold in our house in Trussville. The wind was beginning to subside. The temperature was 26.
An amazing 12 inches of snow was on the ground at the airport in Birmingham.
The overnight observations at the airport were unbelievable. 12:50 a.m.: visibility 1.8 of a mile with a thunderstorm, with heavy snow shower and blowing snow and a north wind gusting to 30 mph, pressure falling rapidly. Two inches of snow per hour from 3 a.m. until 5 a.m.
Here are the overnight observations:
Looking outside, I could not believe the scene. The entire landscape was a deep white. Across the street, the first floor of our neighbors’ house was not even visible due to drifting snow.
It was 39 inside the house. I realized that the power would not be coming on anytime soon and realized that pipes could begin to freeze before very long. I started to stuff towels in the cracks around doors. This was not going to be a fun snow event. This was going to be a life threatening event.
As skies cleared that evening, the mercury plummeted on top of the deep snow cover. That evening, as I grilled the meat we had purchased for the event for us and all our neighbors, the temperature fell into the single digits. It would be 2 by morning at the Birmingham Airport.
It would be a cold and dark night. The power would not come on until Monday for us. For many, it was even longer.
