So, do you remember what you were doing five years ago today? Chances are, if you lived around here, it had something to do with snow, since we were digging out from the biggest snowstorm in this area's recorded history.

Yes, the Blizzard of January 1996 brought the region to a standstill with 20 to 30 inches of snow. Beginning on a Sunday morning, more snow fell in 36 hours than often falls in an entire winter. It was cold and windy too, temperatures in the teens and low 20s. And it wasn't just our area that got hit - at least 20 inches of wind-whipped snow fell on a huge piece of real estate from Virginia to Massachusetts.

One point about that storm - if we stick to the formal definition of a blizzard - that is, a snowstorm with at least three hours of 35-mph winds and visibility less than a quarter mile - the Blizzard of '96 wasn’t actually a blizzard here because the winds weren't strong enough. Now, I'm usually a stickler for definitions, but between you and me - if there ever was a storm around here that deserved to be called a blizzard, that was it.