REAL WINTER: The headline in the Dec. 27, 1978, Era blared,
“Christmas snow smothers city.” The lead read, “Some people may
have been preoccupied with the problems in Iran, inflation or the
Arab-Israeli peace agreement, but Bradford residents had a more
immediate dilemma: snow.”

When all was said and done, Bradford was buried in close to 30
inches of the stuff on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Bradford City bore the brunt of the storm which meant employees
in the city’s Department of Public Works spent their Christmas
clearing snow from the city’s main arteries.

It all began about 2:30 p.m. Christmas Eve. That’s when a
Federal Aviation Administration officer reported the first flakes
falling at Bradford Regional Airport. The Era story notes that “by
7 p.m., there was an accumulation of 6 inches of new snow and the
period from 7 p.m. to midnight added 5.8 inches more.”

From 1 to 7 a.m. Christmas morning, another 9.4 inches fell. A
little over an inch fell after that, bringing the total to about 21
inches. Add that to the remaining snow on the ground from a
previous storm, and the total accumulation was approximately 29
inches.

In a story 10 years ago that featured recollections of that
snowy Christmas, people going to Midnight Mass recalled a light
dusting of snow when they went into church, but when they came out
about 1:30 a.m., their cars were buried in snow banks several feet
deep.

Former Bradford City Fire Chief Frank Frontino recalled in the
story how a parade of St. Bernard parishioners showed up at the
fire station looking for assistance in getting their cars on the
road.

Then-Rev. G. Carlton Ritchie was quoted as believing “there was
no way” anyone would show up for 7 a.m. Christmas Day Mass at St.
Francis of Assisi. He was wrong. A car stopped in front of the
church, disgorging two altar boys and their father.

Exact amounts differ of how much snow actually fell. The
recollection story reports that 28 inches fell at the Bradford
Airport between 2:30 p.m. Christmas Eve and 5 p.m. Christmas
Day.

The story notes that “many who tried to shovel, plow or walk
through the snow on Christmas Day still swear it was 3 feet or
more.”