The East Cost was pummeled with record snowfall last week. This prompted us at PLOWZ & MOWZ to go back and look at some other record setting snow falls in U.S. history. Here are 5 that came to mind:
The Blizzard of 1996
This nor’easter began with snow falling in D.C. and traveling through the Eastern Seaboard, with gusts of wind up to 50 mph. 32 inches in Providence, Rhode Island, was the highest documented accumulation during this storm. President Bill Clinton shut down the federal government for about a week, as D.C. and nine other states were declares disaster areas.
The Great White Blizzard
In May 1888, gusts of wind up to 85 mph carried this storm along the East Coast, and in some parts of NYC, drifts reached up to second story windows. Above ground water and gas lines froze and hundreds of boats sunk under heavy winds. Traffic and commuting was immobilized, especially in NYC, and this ’88 winter provoked the inception of the underground subway system still in use today.
Groundhog Day Blizzard
Finally ending on Groundhog Day in 2011, this storm affected a third of the United States. Impacting 10 million people in its path from the Rockies to New England, the Groundhog Day Blizzard resulted in school and postal services closings and left snow-filled streets packed with abandoned cars.
Knickerbocker Storm
This Washington D.C. storm began the evening of January 27, 1992. A total of 28 inches accumulated by the next day and this amount still remains the single-storm snowfall record for the area. The extreme weight of the fallen snow caused the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre to cave in, and influenced a new bar of architectural integrity to be set within the city.
Blizzard in Buffalo
In November 2014, Buffalo, NY accumulated snowdrifts up to 30 feet high, trapping people inside their homes for days. Around the nine month anniversary of the storm, Buffalo hospitals prepared for a spike in the numbers of newborn babies to be born in the area. A local news station coined it the “Snowvember Baby Boom”.