For he saith to the snow, be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength. – Job 37:6

Sixty years ago today, my family awoke to the results of a severe winter storm in Syracuse, New York. It was a Tuesday and school had been canceled, so it would be a leisurely day.

When my brother, sister, and I went to the kitchen table for breakfast, we noticed that the window that looked out to the side of the house was covered with snow. Thinking nothing of it, we tapped on the glass, thinking that the snow would fall off so we could see outside. No way, so we gave up.

Later, we went outside for a look and what we saw was rather stunning. There was no way the snow could have been tapped off the window, for there was a snow drift on that side of the house that was at least ten feet high! This event became known as the Blizzard of ’66 and our home was located in a hard-hit area.

Syracuse received 42 inches of snow during the three day storm, but this was a small amount compared with Oswego, just 45 minutes further north. That city’s total was 102 inches! Massive drifts up to twenty feet high were created by wind speeds of up to sixty miles per hour. This was a true blizzard over much of New York State and Eastern Canada.

Our neighborhood was completely closed off with no way to access the streets and roads and any attempt to get to a store for food was simply out of the question. The main roads were clear, but our neighborhood would not be reached by a snow plow for several days.

Fortunately, we had a few neighbors who owned snowmobiles and they graciously volunteered to go to the store to get necessities for any families that needed help.

Normally, I was the one who shoveled our driveway after a snowfall, but as a seven-year-old, I was unable to get much accomplished. So, my mom hired a couple of teen boys to get the work done. They worked long and hard before returning to their own homes.

Central New York has long been accustomed to strong winter storms, but this one is still remembered as one of the great ones, essentially unequaled in its intensity.

© 2026 Jeffery J. Michaels / Plain English Publications
(Quotations allowed with attribution to this blog)