Stranded passengers had to live in the airport until flights were resumed. Cleveland Hopkins International Airport was also shut down for the duration of the storm. Spray even blew over 100 yards to the North side of the WJW TV station and accumulated ice. Spray from the large waves hitting the bank along the shoreway was deposited on the shoreway making it extremely slippery. The shoreway was shutdown due to visibilities being reduced to a 100 feet or less and drifting snow. The Lakeside Yacht Club near Burke Lakefront Airport sustained significant damage with docks ripped up by at least 12 foot waves. Mark stated the high winds and wind chill values were unreal and the city of Cleveland virtually did not exist and was shut down and became a ghost town. There was no activity on the shoreway during the blizzard. Several people suffered frostbite as air temperatures fell below zero.įormer WJW-TV 8 and WFMJ-TV 21 Meteorologist Mark Koontz reflected on this event and stated that the shoreway in Cleveland was "quite surreal". The City of Ashtabula was declared a disaster area and the National Guard was activated. Utilities were out for several hours and hundreds of residents and travelers had to go to shelter areas. Visibilities were zero for several hours and virtually all roads were closed from just east of Cleveland, Ohio to Buffalo, New York. WJET-TV 24 Meteorologist remembered the high winds and incredible snow drifts that developed from the fine snow because the air was so cold making the snow lighter. Winds of 40 to 50 mph whipped between 6 and 20 inches of new snow into 10 to 15 foot drifts.
Snow fell across northern Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania on December 24th and 25th. The combination of the arctic cold temperatures and the wide open Great Lakes set the stage for the development of a Lake Effect blizzard. Christmas of 1983 was the coldest Christmas ever with blizzard conditions across northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania.
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