Original National Weather Service Data Forms submitted by Roy L. Wells, Jr., for the official station of Wise 1 SE located on the campus of University of Virginia’s College At Wise.

The 1977-78 Winter Season

This was the second of back-to-back harsh winters in the mountains, and across most of the eastern United States, with even more snowfall and prolonged snow depth than observed during the 1976-77 Winter ( especially in upper elevations, above 3000 feet, of the High Knob Massif ).

October 1977

November 1977

The first big snowfall event of this winter was a SW Upslope Flow episode featuring 16″ of reported snow depth in Big Stone Gap and 11″ ( at 5 PM observation time ) in Wise on November 27.  This event started a LONG snow cover season in the High Knob Massif.

December 1977

January 1978

Although snow had already been covering upper elevations in the High Knob Massif for a long time ( since November 26 in places ), snowfall on January 9 marked the beginning of another long and harsh wintry period that featured 1″ or more of snow depth at my observing station in Clintwood ( elevation just 1560 feet ) during the entire interval from January 9 to March 11.

February 1978

A deep snowpack developed amid upper elevations of the High Knob Massif, with Otis & Nancy Ward measuring a mean depth of 42″ at their home in the Robinson Knob community of the massif ( elevation 3240 feet ).

*This contrasted with mean snow depths that reached 14″ at my observing station in Clintwood ( elevation 1560 feet ) where around 19 days during the winter featured double digit depths.

Steve Blankenbecler reported depths of more than 4 feet along northern slopes heading into Eagle Knob, where he said it was like “driving through a tunnel” to reach the site for Virginia-Kentucky Communications near the summit.

March 1978

April 1978

A general 73″ to 82″ of snowfall was observed in the Wise and Clintwood area during the 1977-78 Winter Season.

It is not known how much snow fell in upper elevations of the High Knob Massif during this 1977-78 season; however, given snow amounts during the past 25 years have tended to be double or more than observed in Wise and Clintwood  it was a significant amount.

The 1977-78 Winter produced an official snowfall total of 26.2″ in the Tri-Cities of the Great Valley of northeastern Tennessee, with 21.1″ in Knoxville.

Original National Weather Service Data Forms submitted by Roy L. Wells, Jr., for the official station of Wise 1 SE located on the campus of University of Virginia’s College At Wise.

The 1976-77 Winter Season

October 1976

November 1976

December 1976

January 1977

February 1977

The observation site of Wise 1 SE had a southern exposure at its elevation of 2560 feet above sea level, so it represents the least amount of snow cover days for the middle elevation zone.

The observation time of 5:00 PM, in addition, tends to represent less snow depth than stations where the recorded 24-hour snow depth is during the morning ( i.e., snow depths often decrease during afternoon hours even during some snowstorms unless temps are very cold and snow is falling steadily to heavily ).

The harsh nature of the 1976-77 winter is illustrated by weather records of Elizabeth & Addison Stallard, which show snow cover visible across the head of Powell Valley from December 20, 1976 to March 11, 1977. A continuous stretch of 82 days! Quite impressive for a snow shadowed locale which typically has only a fraction of snow cover days observed across the high country above.

**Northern slope sites, especially in upper elevations, had almost constant snow cover from mid-November into mid-March during the 1976-77 winter.

March 1977

Although 68″ of snow were measured in Wise during the November-March period of the 1976-77 Winter, total water equivalent precip was much below average with only 10.16″  during these 5 months ( a winter dominated by cold air and  mostly low density falls of snow ).

That changed rapidly in early April 1977.

April 1977

A total of 7.75″ of mostly rain fell in Wise during April 2-5 as part of the Great Flood of April 1977.  More precipitation in water equivalent form than measured during the entire November-February period combined.

Rainfall totals of more than 12.00″ were estimated by a follow up study along windward facing mountain slopes, with the High Knob Massif likely having among the most.

*A total of 0.8″ of snow fell at the end of this event in Wise, with 2-3″+ of snow falling in parts of the mountain area at the conclusion of this flood.