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Blizzard in Western Whatcom, Washington

Blizzard December 27, 1996 – December 28, 1996 · Western Whatcom, Washington

The wider storm

By 430 am friday morning Bellingham had gotten nearly 7 inches in the last 10 hrs, total snow depth downtown was almost 12 inches. By saturday night roughly 3 feet of snow had fallen and they had wind up to 50 mph with wind chills near 50 below. Whatcom county was declared a disaster area as there were drifts to 10 feet. Snow plows were getting stuck as there were no passable roads in the county. There were 100's of cars abandoned and they had to send out search and rescue crews to go after state patrol, some of the rescue crew couldn't get out of their own homes. Most of Bellingham's commerce was shut down, hotels were full, and businesses closed. The airport had no air traffic for 3 days and postal service was cancelled for a while.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5577220. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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