Funny April Fools Day About Snow Storm
Two days before, on March 30, which was Easter Sunday that year, the high temperatures had climbed into the 50s and 60s. But on Monday, March 31, when the workweek began, it was cooler. And that night rain changed to a heavy, wet snow.
As the storm intensified overnight in metro Boston, snow fell as fast as 3 inches per hour and there were numerous reports of thunder and lightning, the National Weather Service said in a retrospective posted to the Web this week.
People woke up to a winter wonderland on Tuesday, April 1. And heavy snow continued through the middle of the morning before finally tapering off.
Then a warm sun came out in the afternoon, as if Nature had suddenly remembered what season it was.
Boston ultimately tallied 25.4 inches of snow and Worcester 33.0. Milford led the state with 36 inches, the weather service said.
"Digging out of a spring blitz," the Globe's headline blared on April 2. "Recovery begins for paralyzed Northeast." One Boston man had died from an apparent heart attack while shoveling the snow, the paper reported.
"While today trains, planes and automobiles are moving again, yesterday up to 3 feet of wet, backbreaking snow, spread around in splattering drifts by wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour, paralyzed a region that had already stowed away snowblowers, shovels, and skis," the front-page story said.
"The blizzard was wet and stodgy, lingering lazily as it dumped snow for hours," the story said.
Maybe it was the imminence of better weather ahead, but the Globe found some people in a good mood. They cross-country skied through the streets, frolicked in the snow, or enjoyed a beer on an unexpected day off.
"It's the perfect kind of April Fools' surprise," Stephen Score, owner of a Beacon Hill antiques shop, told a reporter. "We've had an easy winter and were fortified by a lovely touch of spring on Easter. As severe as this storm has been, I think there's just a sense right now, that I'm OK, that life's OK, that this is a happy day."
Twenty five years later, many people can still recall exactly where they were and what they were doing during the storm.
Chris Basque, who was 23 and lived in Sutton at the time, decided to brave the storm to head to his office at Fidelity in Westborough. First, he said, he had to brush at least a foot of snow off the roof of his car.
"I knew if I could make it to [Nichols College in Dudley] in an ice storm, I could make it to Westborough in just a snowstorm," said Basque, who is now 48 and lives in Phoenix.
As he was headed up a steep incline near his office, Basque recalled in a telephone interview, he saw a tractor-trailer jackknifed on the road.
He said driving was "a fun, but scary experience." However, nowadays, he'd never drive in those conditions, not just because of the risk but because he works from home.
"I think maybe it's because I was young, and I wanted to prove myself. Because I really loved Fidelity. I still do," Basque said. "And I wanted to do the work that I loved to do there."
Basque said every once in a while, he reminisces and watches news reports of the blizzard on YouTube.
For Lydia Bogar, the storm brings back a smell. She distinctly recalled being trapped in her home with her ceilings that were freshly skim coated.
"I couldn't open the windows because of the snow, so there was this overwhelming, plastery suffocating smell," said Bogar, 73, of Grafton, in a telephone interview.
She recalled that there was some tree damage during the storm, but most damage, she said, came after the snow, including an ice dam that leaked water into her living room.
"That's the first time I think I ever had a claim on my homeowner's insurance," she said. "Both of my kids were grown and out of the house -- so it was me and the stinky plaster."
With buds on the trees and flowers poking out of the ground already this week, could something similar happen this year?
Bill Simpson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, said it's possible that a storm of that size at this time of year could happen again, but it's unlikely this year.
"We have no indication of that at all," Simpson said in a telephone interview.
Martin Finucane can be reached at martin.finucane@globe.com. Matt Yan can be reached at matt.yan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @matt_yan12.
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Source: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/03/31/metro/25-years-ago-this-april-fools-day-joke-brought-up-3-feet-snow-mass/
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