[Jeffhs]

I am 30 miles east of Cleveland and about a mile from the south shore of Lake Erie. Our winters can be bad (we had a horrendous blizzard in 1978), but it usually isn't too terrible. When the wind blows in off the lake, it can get very cold, sometimes below zero (but not as cold as in Minnesota, and I don't want to think how cold it gets in International Falls). The last time I remember the temperature that cold around here was a year or two ago, when I think it dropped to -15 for a day or so. Being as close to the lake as I am, I've gotten used to this type of cold snap, and yes, we did have one snowstorm a couple years ago that dumped about six inches of the white stuff on our town, but mostly we don't get that much. Since snowstorms ordinarily go for high elevation areas, this town normally won't see a lot but there have been exceptions. There is an area (Geauga County, Ohio), about 10 miles south of here, however, in which high snow accumulations are the rule rather than the exception. The area gets so much snow (more than we do) because its elevation is very high. The same thing happens west of Cleveland in some areas, again due to the higher elevation, although as a rule there is much less snow west of the city during anything but a severe storm or blizzard. During the blizzard of 1978, much of Cleveland and surrounding areas were all but shut down (I personally had a foot of snow in front of my garage door, and my next-door neighbor had snow halfway up the side door of her house). It was truly a blizzard not to be forgotten, and believe me, if you went through it, you would never forget it! I know I won't.