Photos show winter blast from the past in Detroit

Two of the six Lucas children, Richard, 10, and John, 8, enjoy a neighborhood romp in after a brisk Michigan snow in 1969.

Every time it snows around the Elmer Heiney home in northwest Detroit, Mrs. Heiney harnesses Beatle, the family St. Bernard, for a sled-pulling job. Beatle gets his exercise, and John Heiney, 7, and his brother Robert, 4, get to go along for the ride in 1972.

(L-R) University of Detroit students Christopher Wise, 24, Charles Ferguson, 23, and Michael Steward, 26, dig knee high snow from the front yard of Leonida Johnson's home on Saturday, January 16, 1999. Six University of Detroit students volunteered their time and shovels to dig out eight houses in the city of Detroit.

Snow in her hair and warmth in her heart, Patricia Douglas rings out for the needy in 1976. She is bell-ringing for the Salvation Army, asking donations for the poor. She has done it each Christmas season for the past 13 years.

Thomas Byrnes, Detroit along with Malik Salaam and another man who preferred to remain anonymous, push Dan Mancuso's car out of the snow near Jefferson avenue in Detroit in 1992.

As temperatures registered in the mid-30s, snow turned to slush, causing scenes like these throughout Detroit in 1977.

Jerry Drader, 33, of Rochester packs in fresh snow on his dragon ice sculpture in January, 1990. "All you really need is a shovel, the right temperature and a really good pair of gloves," he said.

In 1972, Susan Leopold, 15, and her friends wanted to make a snow-person in her Huntington Woods backyard and ended up with a four-foot-high representation of a familiar face, President Nixon's. Susan, a sophomore at Berkeley High Scholl, explained: "We like to do snow sculpture and he had some pretty outstanding features."

A snow storm hit metro Detroit in 1992.

Christal Sims, home from school, runs down Larned near McDougall, after helping a neighbor shovel snow in Detroit in 1993..

Mitchel Brown, 5, of Birmingham as the wind whips snow in his face in 1992.

Passengers wait to board a bus on a snow packed sidewalk in front of Hudson's Department Store on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan after the historic snowstorm of December 1974.

Shoveling snow into a waiting truck in 1965.

Shoveling snow in 1977.

A man shoves his car out of the snow after a 1965 storm in Detroit, Michigan.

Snow falls in Detroit at the Calder statue at Cass at Michigan in 1981.

The snow is a welcome sight on Dead Man's on Hines Drive in Detroit, (right), where sleds and discs carry downhill enthusiasts at a sometimes dizzying pace in 1979.

A sensible Belle Isle black squirrel, sitting on a dead limb, keeping his tootsies dry and enjoying the noonday sun in February 1979.

Winter storm in Detroit in 1987.

If traversing snow piles on Woodward becomes an Olympic sport, these shoppers in downtown Birmingham may have some trouble making the team in 1986.

George Fontana, 11, Allen Crumb, 12, and Rosemary Fontana, 8 have fun in the snow in 1965.

Strong winds and heavy snow buffeted Detroiters in the state's second blizzard of 1965.

John Riggs, 44, of Detroit, Michigan, strolls around his overturned car on the southbound Lodge Freeway's Bagley exit in this 1992 photo. Riggs' car flipped after he lost control near a bank of snow. His stepdaughter, April Johnson, 8, was with him, but both wore seat belts and neither was injured.

Derrick Rhodes, of Power Vac Services in Detroit vacuums snow from the people mover tracks on January 12, 1999, near the Greektown station.

Rosevillle Firefighters Lt. Joe Popp, Eugene Sand, and Paul Wikarski dig around a snow covered fire hydrant, January 14, 1999 on Grosebeck Highway in Roseville. The three man crew spent most of Thursday searching for and clearing snow around many of the fire hydrants in the city.

From left, Jessica Ashe, 9, of Beverly Hills, and Kati Everard, 9, of Birmingham, sled down the hill at the Beverly Hills Village Park during a snow day in January, 1999.

Stephen Waller-Bey, of Detroit talks on the telephone as snow blows thru while waiting for a bus on the corner of 14th and Clarimont on the Westside of Detroit in 1996.

Residents look to free their cars from a snowy street in this scene in January, 1998.

Elizabeth Hacker, 12, along with her brother Daniel, 7, mom Pauline Hacker-Heck and dad Michael Heck build a fort in 2002.

14-year-old Jeremy Baker, of Ferndale, left , and 13 year-old Shane Burr, of Ferndale, go airborne after targeting a homemade jump with their sleds at Martin Road Park in 2002.

First graders Kayla Porter and Senada Cosovic, both 7, have their snack break outdoors at Bemis Elementary school in Troy in 2002.

A erspm walks through falling snow on the grounds of Madonna University in Livonia in 2002.

Alex Winnie, 57, has been in maintenance at the U.A W. Daimler Chrysler National Training Center, located at the corner of Chene and E. Jefferson on Detroit's lower east side, for the past 8 years. He woke up at 6:30 a.m. to begin digging out in 2003.

Seventh grader Alonzo Thomas, Jr., 13, laughs after chucking the first winter snowball at his sister sophomore Whitney Thomas, 16, outside the window of their home in Port Huron, Mich. in 2002. "I'm happy about it snowing," said Alonzo. "But I just wish it was on a school day."

Automobile engineer John Borza, 48, pulls his daughter Michelle Borza, 12, through the thick snow at Palmer Park in Port Huron, Mich. in 2002. The Borzas drove up from Shelby Township to enjoy the winter weather. "We heard they had 17 inches up here," said Borza. "It seemed like a perfect day."

Snow-covered trees form a canopy over Greenshield Road in Bald Mountain Recreation Area east of Lapeer Road in Orion Township Monday, Dec. 6, 1999.

A.M. Swart shovels out the walk in front of his home on Frank in Birmingham in 2000. "Too much snow for me. Too much at one time." he said.

Michael Kirschner (left), 4, and Tyler Witte (right), 10, of Troy, play tag in the driveway of their neighbor Kim and Tom Johnson's home on Kilmer street in 2000. A handful of mischievous neighbors constructed a 16-foot-tall snowman.

story: removing ice and snow build-up on roofs date: Tuesday, January 2, 2001 Brothers Ben Kosmalski (left), 42 and of Canton, and Eric Kosmalski, 28 and of Dearborn Heights, work with Karney Derderian's Crown Contracting in Novi to remove snow from the roof of a home in Farmington Hills on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2001.

A plow moves slowly down a Marquette Township, Mich., street lined with trees covered with wet heavy snow, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2001. Schools were closed and events were canceled as people dealt with heavy snow, power outages and slippery roads. (AP photo/Brian Halbrook, The Mining Journal) MIMAR101

Johnathon Butler, from Detroit, waits in a ice covered bus stop shelter at the corner of Mack and Conner Thursday January 31, 2002 as snow gave way to freezing rain during a winter storm that blasted the metro area.

Ice formations are covered in deep snow along the coast of Lake Superior not far from Calumet in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in February 2021.