CLEVELAND — If you grew up in Northern Ohio, chances are you’ve heard someone say, “You think this is bad? You should’ve seen the Veterans Day storm back in ’96.”

From Nov. 9–14, 1996, a nearly week-long blast of Arctic air blew across the still-mild waters of Lake Erie and produced one of the most extreme early-season lake-effect snow events ever recorded in the Great Lakes. Parts of the Snowbelt east of Cleveland were buried under five to nearly six feet of snow, setting an Ohio single-storm snowfall record that still stands today.

On Nov. 9, 1996, a strong upper-level trough dove south into the Great Lakes, dragging in much cold, arctic air behind it. As that frigid air flowed across the relatively warm waters of Lake Erie, bands of intense lake-effect snow quickly organized and l

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