It was the perfect storm.
One system full of moisture moving north, merging with another system of artic air, creating a blizzard right over Ohio. It buried the region with up to two feet of snow and massive drifts.
One person who remembers the storm well is Dean Martin - who works on our janitorial crew at 10TV.
In 1978, Dean was working for a paper mill in Circleville and says that he was just starting to enjoy the first few flakes, when all of a sudden, "it started coming down, so we thought we better go home. (On the way) we pulled a couple of cars out of the ditches, as it was really coming down bad.”
Despite the storm, Dean still had to go into work where he got stuck for over 26 hours.
“It snowed so hard, there were people who were close and people who were far that could not get to work. They would go around and ask for people if they could stay over or work longer, and there were a lot of us there that just stayed there and would take breaks and sleep in the canteen area and then go back to work for the people that couldn't get in.”
The storm raged for 48 hours with wind gusts of 55 mph and wind chills of 40 below zero.
The Blizzard of 1978 is still considered the worst winter storm to ever hit the state with over 50 people losing their lives.
Dean says he will never forget it.
“What surprised me is when you here about big snows coming, and you are aware of it. But you don't anticipate that much snow coming and the volume of the snow.”