Blizzard — Sandusky, Ohio

2022-12-23 to 2022-12-24 · Sandusky, Ohio

Event narrative

An Arctic cold front swept through the area shortly before midnight December 23rd. Low pressure along this front tracked over Lake Erie early in the morning on December 23rd and rapidly intensified through the day while slowly lifting northeast across Ontario. With the frontal passage rain changed to snow with temperatures dropping from the upper 30s and lower 40s to sub-zero in about 8 hours. A period of light to moderate snow occurred behind the front into the morning hours of December 23rd before becoming much lighter by midday. The period of snow and rapidly falling temperatures led to a flash freeze and icy conditions on area roadways. While the falling snow became lighter through the daytime hours of December 23rd, winds began increasing during the pre-dawn hours and gusted over 50 MPH through the day. A peak wind gust of 58 MPH was measured at 1:55 PM December 23rd at the Sandusky County Regional Airport. Scattered tree damage and power outages resulted. Wind gusts very gradually subsided into December 24th, though gusts didn't drop below 30 MPH until that evening. This led to a prolonged period of widespread blowing and drifting snow beginning early in the morning December 23rd and continuing through the afternoon and evening, with some patchy blowing and drifting snow continuing all the way through Christmas Eve. The Sandusky County Regional Airport reported visibility consistently at or below one-quarter of a mile in falling and/or blowing snow beginning around 4 AM December 23rd and continuing through 5 PM before gradually improving. Wind gusts were well over 35 MPH for that entire period, meaning blizzard conditions were observed. The greatest impact from this storm was to travel due to the flash freeze and extensive blowing and drifting snow, to go along with low visibility. Minor accidents, slide-offs and disabled vehicles were reported throughout the area on December 23rd and 24th. The most significant incident occurred shortly before 12:30 PM December 23rd at mile marker 106 of the Ohio Turnpike, in Townsend Township along the Erie County border. A deadly pile-up involving 46 vehicles occurred, resulting in 4 fatalities (a 59 year-old male, 30 year-old male, 37 year-old female and 19 year-old female). A total of 73 injuries occurred, several critical. At the time of the accident blowing snow was resulting in near-zero visibility with winds gusting over 50 MPH and wind chills between -30 and -35 degrees. Due to the severity of the accident and harsh conditions the Turnpike did not fully reopen in both directions until 5 PM December 24th. The Sandusky County Sheriff called a Level 3 snow emergency the morning of December 23rd, which was not lifted until early December 24th. This closed all roads in the county to non-emergency travel. Wind chills plunged below 0 around 4 AM December 23rd and did not warm back above 0 until the early morning hours of December 26th. A minimum wind chill of -37 degrees was reported at 9:55 AM December 23rd at the Sandusky County Regional Airport. A weather station in Fremont reported a wind chill of -33 degrees at 11:00 AM. A number of burst pipes were reported across northern Ohio due to this cold, with temperatures remaining in the single digits until Christmas morning. Snowfall totals in the county averaged 2 to 3 inches.

Wider weather episode

A long-duration, multi-faceted winter storm hit northern Ohio just before Christmas 2022 with extreme cold, strong winds, accumulating snow and extensive blowing and drifting of the snow that fell. An Arctic cold front swept east across northern Ohio during the late evening hours of December 22nd and early morning hours of December 23rd. Low pressure along this front tracked over Lake Erie early in the morning on December 23rd and rapidly intensified through the day while slowly lifting northeast across Ontario. With the frontal passage rain changed to snow with temperatures dropping from the upper 30s and lower 40s to sub-zero in about 8 hours. The snow was generally light to moderate, but a brief period of heavier snow with rates of around one inch per hour lifted from Central Ohio through Northeast Ohio during the early morning hours December 23rd. The period of snow and rapidly falling temperatures led to a flash freeze and icy conditions on area roadways. While the falling snow became lighter through the daytime hours of December 23rd, winds began increasing during the pre-dawn hours and gusted over 40 MPH area-wide through the day. Peak gusts in Northwest Ohio and in counties along the Lake Erie shoreline were between 50-60 MPH, with some marine stations gusting upwards of 70 MPH. Peak gusts across the rest of northern Ohio were generally 40-50 MPH. Wind gusts very gradually subsided into December 24th, though gusts didn't drop below 30mph until that evening. This led to a prolonged period of widespread blowing and drifting snow beginning early in the morning December 23rd and continuing through the afternoon and evening, with some patchy blowing and drifting snow continuing all the way through Christmas Eve. In parts of northern Ohio the blowing and drifting snow was extensive enough to lead to blizzard conditions on December 23rd. This storm caused a number of impacts across the area. The greatest impact was to travel due to the flash freeze and extensive blowing and drifting snow, to go along with low visibility. During the early afternoon hours on December 23rd a pile-up involving over 50 vehicles occurred on the Ohio Turnpike near the Sandusky and Erie County line, unfortunately leading to over 70 injuries and 4 fatalities. Numerous minor accidents, slide-offs and disabled vehicles were reported throughout the area on December 23rd and 24th. In total, several hundred traffic accidents, slide-offs, or disabled vehicles were reported across northern Ohio during this storm with approximately 200 accident-related injuries resulting. Many counties declared level three snow emergencies, prompting the closure of all county roads. Wind chills dipped to -25 to -40 across all of northern Ohio on December 23rd, unfortunately leading to 2 exposure-related fatalities, one in Stark County and another in Marion County. A number of burst pipes were reported across northern Ohio due to this cold, with temperatures remaining in the single digits until Christmas morning. Snowfall at climate sites across northern Ohio ranged from 1.0' at Toledo to 2.7' at Akron-Canton, 2.9' at Mansfield, 3.7' at Cleveland and 4.3' at Youngstown. Trained snow spotters reported amounts as high as 6.5' near Thompson and 6.0' near Shelby and Monroe Center.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1092384. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.