East Coast braces, flights canceled as ‘historic’ blizzard bears down (Luc Cohen, Brendan O’Brien, Jon Herskovitz and Dan Whitcomb, Reuters, 26 January 2015)
The Blizzard of 1888; the Impact of this Devastating Storm on New York Transit (G. J. Chistiano, NYC Subway.org) Snowfall across New York City ranged from two to five feet (lesser amounts near the waterfront) while severe winds piled up drifts from 15 to 30 feet deep. After a day of rain on 11 March, 36 hours of heavy snowfall started on the 12th, continuing for 36 hours, sometimes at 2-3 inches per hour, with winds that reached over 80 miles per hour. The storm in the City was called “The Great White Hurricane”.
Great Blizzard of 1888 (Wikipedia) Snowfalls from 20 to 50 inches fell over three days 11 March to 13 March 1888 over parts of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. There were sustained winds of 45 nph that produced snowdrifts in excess of 50 feet depth. The region was shut down for up to a week as people were buried in their houses.
The storm was essentially a winter-time equivalent of Sandy, the massive hurricane of 2012 which was centered on the same region.
Great Atlantic Coastal Snowstorms (Glen Allen Weather.com) There are records of massive snowstorms and “winter hurricanes” going all the way back to the first half of the 17th century. The snow depth measurements are not considered accurate, of course, but they are certainly in the ballpark.
