[1] The third lowest non-tropical atmospheric pressure ever recorded in the mainland United States occurred as the storm passed over Mount Clemens, Michigan, where barometer readings fell to 956.0 mb (28.23 inHg) on January 26.

[3] These Arctic and subtropical jet streams merged (with maximum winds of 150 knots) which led the deepening Gulf low-pressure system, which had moved over Alabama and Georgia, to undergo explosive cyclogenesis and move rapidly northward towards West Virginia during the evening of January 25 (with record low pressures were logged across parts of the South and Mid-Atlantic).

On January 26, the third-lowest atmospheric pressure recorded in the mainland United States, apart from a tropical system, occurred as the storm passed over Mount Clemens, Michigan.

At around the same time, the absolute low pressure was measured at Sarnia, in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, where barometer readings decreased to 955.5 mb (28.22 inHg).

[2] The lowest confirmed pressure for a non-tropical system in the continental United States had been set by a January 1913 Atlantic coast storm.

[2] On rare occasions, extra-tropical cyclones with central pressures below 28 inches of mercury or about 95 kPa (950 mb) have been recorded in Wiscasset, Maine (27.9") and Newfoundland (27.76").

Upon arriving after a 45-minute walk in waist-deep snow from his home 10 city blocks away, he had to dig down "a foot" to put the key in the front door.

[11] In Indiana on day two, half an hour after the front passed through the area, the Indianapolis International Airport was closed due to whiteout conditions.

Northwest of Toronto in Brampton, Ontario, on Thursday afternoon, school buses could not get through deep snow to the then-rural campus of Sheridan College to take students home.

About 20 people died as a direct or indirect result of the storm, most due to heart attacks or traffic accidents.

[16] Long-term New York weather stations that established all-time monthly snowfall records in January 1978 include: [16]