Comments on: The Christmas Eve blizzard of 1982 – The best of Denver storms

By: sam

sam — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:25:31 +0000

Memory Lane ! My wife and had moved to Denver in 1979 from west Texas. We had a baby daughter just barely 1 year old and had just moved into a new 3 bedroom house in the suburb of Aurora. My Mother, Father, and youngest brother had driven up from Texas and brought along my 7 year old son from a previous marriage to visit us in Denver for the first time. They arrived on December 22nd. My wife and I barely made it home from work on the 23rd. The middle brother, who had followed me to Denver and was living with his girlfriend and her young son there, was trying to make it to our house on Christmas Eve too and their car got high-centered about a mile away. They almost froze to death walking to our house through waist deep snow and the sub-zero wind chill. We had to put them in a luke-warm shower and slowly bring their body temps back to normal. We had 10 people snowed into that little house for 4-5 days before we could shovel our way out. It took us an entire day working in shifts just to shovel the driveway. We also built snow caves for the kids to play in. By the end of the 5 days we had extreme cases of cabin fever and were tired of not being able to go anywhere without stumbling over someone else ! It is a wonder we didn’t kill each other. We still talk about that storm and the memories. The stories seem a lot funnier now than it really felt at the time.

By: Jonathon

Jonathon — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:11:49 +0000

I was 8 yrs old when this storm hit. We lived in Aurora and it took a week for the plows to get to our street. Because of this storm my Parents moved us to Tucson, AZ the following summer. I remember the drifts going all the way to the roof line.

By: Penny

Penny — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:17:17 +0000

I was 21 back then and I will never forget that day. I was supposed to go to work and actually tried to drive there but only made it a few blocks. As I was walking back to my apartment, which was only a block from the Stapleton airport fence in Aurora, I watched a police officer as his car also became stuck. Later that day I put my two year old son in a baby backpack and walked to the grocery store which was a few blocks away. There were two Public buses stranded across the street from the store, with passengers in them. They were there for several hours after the sun went down but eventually ended up spending the night in the grocery store. Christmas day some of the stores that were supposed to be closed were open, I guess because everyone was stranded.

By: Charlene

Charlene — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:19:40 +0000

Yea, I remember that day. Not many of us will forget it. I was 18 at the time.
I had woke up that morning, feeling unwell. There was snow on the ground, but not enough to really worry. By noon, I was taken to a doctor, and was told I had strep throat.
Dandy. Christmas Eve and day I would be sick.
By the time my father and I got home, the weather began to pick up, and snow was flying everywhere. Needless to say, no one dared to venture out the rest of the night. By Christmas morning, we had a wall of white at the back door.
We lived right on 20th ave and Harlan and no plows were seen for days. Was eerily quiet.

By: Most snow you have ever experienced - CycloneFanatic

Most snow you have ever experienced - CycloneFanatic — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:25:07 +0000

[...] permalink I was a student at ISU and flew home to Denver (Westminster) and got this. 34" of snow in Thornton which is right by Westminster. The only time I saw snowmobiles go down our city streets. Our cars were totally gone from site and the chain link fences in our back yard the same. But it was Denver so even that much snow can melt in a hurry. The Christmas Eve blizzard of 1982 – The best of Denver storms | Thornton and Denver Weather N… [...]

By: Moe Bertrand

Moe Bertrand — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:56:30 +0000

I was just 18 at the time, married and a young Airman in the USAF. My wife and I made a last-minute trip to the In-Laws in Denver and we arrived at Stapleton Airport the evening of the 23rd…a Thursday. Our intention was to fly back to California on the 26th. It was all good, except that I was away from my duty station without being on official leave. Well, the snowstorm hit and when departure day arrived, the skies were blue, the snow was high, and Stapleton was open…barely. Luckily, our fight was operating, but it was very late coming in from D.C. Once the flight arrived we boarded but we sat, and sat, and sat. We finally departed several hours late and it was all we could do to run from United to Wings West to make our commuter connection to Santa Maria. We finally made it home but I tell you what, December 26th 1982 was a pretty stressful day for me as I’m sure it was for a lot of other folks.

By: Suz the Q

Suz the Q — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:29:07 +0000

A Christmas Eve forever remembered! I was 30 and living in Aurora, Co. When I heard about the storm hitting Salt Lake first, and upon leaving work on the 23rd, I shopped at King’s Soopers and stocked up! It was 2wks before I went back to work which was 3 miles away. People travelled on snow mobiles and cross-country skis. My ski bibs and snow boots came in handy when braving all that vast wintery white. Oh, by the way; I’m 5′5″ and the snow was pass my waist! Thank you for the memory-lane article!

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:44:20 +0000

I remember the blizzard because I tried to dig out four houses in my neighborhood alone.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:21:11 +0000

i was just a kid. this was our last Christmas in denver and i remember snow so high we could make tunnels in our horseshoe appartment complex. we lived near the capital building and i remember we had to go to the whitespot for Christmas dinner on foot because roads were closed

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:06:34 +0000

I was in high school (Denver East) at the time, and I still remember this storm. We lived at 2nd Ave N. and Colorado. I recall trying to keep my Mom’s car, which was parked on the street, shoveled out and cleared because we wanted to go last minute shopping later that evening. But by sunset, the snowfall was too much for me to keep up with – by the time I got the front of the car shoveled out, the back of the car would be buried up to the bumpers, and vice versa. So I gave up and we stayed home, and watched the snow fall. When I awoke the next morning, the 10′ wide alley between our house and the neighbor’s house was FILLED with snow, to a height of 10 feet. We couldn’t open the side door there. Snow was drifted up on the East side of the house to even higher, covering the windows there, as well. On the west side, the snow was still at least 4′ deep, and I managed to shovel a path to the curb, and turned and looked at the roof… and that’s when I got scared. There was 4 or more feet of snow on the roof, also, and it looked heavy. Two weeks later, we were still using RTD buses to get everywhere, because the snow had frozen to ice, and someone (McNichols? Pena?) had decided to use trash trucks to “clear” the residential streets, but didn’t consider that their wheelbase is a good foot or two wider than a passenger car’s. So the result was 2′ deep frozen ruts that were so far apart it actually made the streets completely impassable to normal traffic. Fortunately, there was a small food market within walking distance or we might have starved. I live in So California now, but still remember that day… and also the -20 degree deep freeze the following winter.