The Blizzard of '96: A Storm to Remember

[donsutherland1]

The March 12, 1887 edition of Harper’s Weekly observed, “The blizzard is not merely a gale nor merely a snowstorm. It is a furious gale accompanied with driving snow and bitter cold.” A better description of the <b>Blizzard of 1996</b> probably could not have been written.

Those who experienced it will long remember the Blizzard of 1996, which blasted the East Coast with blinding snow, biting winds, and bitter temperatures during its trek up the Eastern Seaboard from January 6-8. In many of the cities it ravaged, it was a storm whose power and countless fine flakes were greater than all of the human effort and technology employed against it. By the time the last flakes had finished falling, the snow stood 1-3 feet deep on the level and mountainous drifts clogged streets and highways.

The falling wind and absence of the normal sounds of traffic and pedestrians had transformed the I-95 megalopolis into a giant Currier & Ives lithograph from yesteryear.

Descriptions of the storm in newspapers were as if the stories had been ripped from a century ago. The prose seemed to bring to life the great Blizzards of 1857 and 1888, veritable “white hurricanes” that attained meteorological immortality for their ferocity, severe cold, and heavy snows.

“A monstrous, crippling blizzard that experts said would make history attacked the New York metropolitan region and much of the East…with blinding snow… It disrupted travel, commerce and life for millions,” the January 8, 1996 issue of The New York Times reported.

“The nation’s capital glistened under a brilliant a brilliant afternoon sun today, but the city’s post card appearance was a grand deception,” the January 9, 1996 edition of The New York Times revealed, “Beneath a cloudless sky, residents began digging out after up to two feet of snow fell over 36 hours through this morning, bringing the region to a virtual standstill by closing schools, stores, offices and government buildings and making travel by any means but cross-country skis almost impossible.”

“New York disappeared under the Blizzard of ’96, only to emerge as a new city. Roadways were as bare as the tundra, and like the tundra they were crisscrossed by hunters who trudged their way up and downtown in search of their offices, groceries or a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” the newspaper opined on January 9.

The story was pretty much the same from the lower Mid-Atlantic region into New England.

“Three feet of snow fell in the hills of southern West Virginia, while parts of Virginia and eastern Tennessee were blanketed by 30 inches. Moving up the coast into New England, the storm brought near blizzard conditions to…the coast o Massachusetts with winds of more than 50 miles an hour over Cape Cod and 40 miles an hour around Boston… In many parts of the city, huge drifts had been built on the sides of streets… Downtown Richmond was largely a shuttered ghost town,” the newspaper’s January 9 report noted.

Accumulations from the Blizzard of '96 included:

White House Station, NJ: 35.0” (all-time state record)
Philadelphia: 30.7” (all-time record)
Newark, NJ: 27.8” (all-time record)
Roanoke, VA: 24.9”
Elkins, WV: 23.4” (all-time record)
Baltimore: 22.5”
Scranton, PA: 21.0” (all-time record)
Charleston, WV: 20.5” (all-time record)
New York City: 20.2”
Washington, DC: 18.7”
Cincinnati: 14.4” (all-time record)

According to the National Climatic Data Center, “From January 6-8, much of the eastern seaboard received from 1 to 3 feet of snow during the ‘Blizzard of ’96.’ A large area from the southern Appalachians to southern New Hampshire and Maine received a foot or more, with 20 inches or more very common over the major metropolitan areas of the East… Accumulations as great as 48 inches occurred in Pocahontas County, WV at the Snowshoe ski resort. Wind gusts of over 50 mph were rather common also, and resulted in blizzard conditions for much of the area.”

Even the South shared in the storm’s feast of snows. CNN reported that parts of Georgia received up to 7” and western North Carolina saw some 28”.

In terms of an explanation for the blizzard’s development, the January 9, 1996 issue of The New York Times explained, “The Blizzard of ’96 was created when a disturbance of 175 mph winds at 30,000 feet poured down the Rockies and reacted with a low-pressure system causing the jet stream to veer sharply northeast along the East Coast. The disturbance drew the intensifying low-pressure system with plenty of moist air from the Gulf to the East Coast. As this low-pressure system moved north, it drew an additional stream of moist air from the Atlantic Ocean across the Northeast and Middle Atlantic States. At the same time, a high centered in Canada drove a large mass of Arctic air southward, freezing the already cold moisture, which fell mostly as snow.

The influx of Atlantic moisture was formidable and called to mind the fabled lake effect snows that bury parts of Michigan, western Pennsylvania and western New York a few times each winter. “The storm system was what one forecaster described as ‘ocean effect snow,’ with moist air from the Atlantic mixing with cold arctic air that moved in from Canada,” CNN reported.

True to a New York Times byline on the storm, the Blizzard of 1996 has proved “For Much of the East, a Storm to Remember.”

[FLguy]

EXCELLENT post Don as always...

If i may...i would like to add that the Blizzard of 96 shattered many of the previous snowfall records for various locations across the same areas set by the march 1993 superstorm.

in addition...the blizzard of 96 produced MUCH more snowfall in the major cities of the northeast than the 1993 superstorm (which dumped a quick foot in most locations before precipitation changed over)

[Guest]

I certainly wont forget it even though at my location at the DE coast it didnt produce the bigger snow amounts thanks to Mixing taking place down there. Starting out with close to a foot then went to a mix of snow and rain and then back to snow and added another 6 or so inches with the wraparound which was very impressive!!!Had lots of coastal flooding from this as well which more or less at the hight of the storm washed away all my snow because the tide came into my yard but the backside of the system did leave my yard convered again untill that little rain event a couple of days later which caused all the big time flooding problems up in the NE.

[verycoolnin]

Here in SE VA, started out with about a foot of snow and I mean blizzard conditions over night, about a foot. Then as day came it mixed and changed over to rain, the night came and added a few more inches on top. Then it was about 70* the next week and then came the massive flooding.

[donsutherland1]

Thanks, FLguy.

Good reminder that this blizzard broke some of the snowfall records established by the '93 superstorm. This storm, unlike Superstorm '93, was able to focus some of its heaviest snows on the megalopolis and it may be quite some time before there is another occurrence on a similar scale.

Thanks also King of Weather and Verycoolnin for your recollections of this blizzard.

[Wannabewxman79]

Accumulations from the Blizzard of '96 included:

White House Station, NJ: 35.0” (all-time state record)
Philadelphia: 30.7” (all-time record)
Newark, NJ: 27.8” (all-time record)
Roanoke, VA: 24.9”
Elkins, WV: 23.4” (all-time record)
Baltimore: 22.5”
Scranton, PA: 21.0” (all-time record)
Charleston, WV: 20.5” (all-time record)
New York City: 20.2”
Washington, DC: 18.7”
Cincinnati: 14.4” (all-time record)
--------------------------------------------------------

Just a quick quirk I find funny about this data.......All but a couple of these records that were set are smaller than the 26 or so inches we in Raleigh saw in 2000 from that storm.

[FLguy]

Thanks, FLguy.

Good reminder that this blizzard broke some of the snowfall records established by the '93 superstorm. This storm, unlike Superstorm '93, was able to focus some of its heaviest snows on the megalopolis and it may be quite some time before there is another occurrence on a similar scale.

Thanks also King of Weather and Verycoolnin for your recollections of this blizzard.

no problem don...and the duration of the event was MUCH longer than what most other "typical" major east coast snowstorms were which played into the very heavy accumulations as well.

[JQ Public]

Ahh...i look back on those days fondly. Such fun to watch on tv.

[JCT777]

Great post, Don. Saw 30 inches of snow from the 1996 Blizzard, which helped it become the snowiest winter of my lifetime. Good memories!

[Dave C]

It was definately my favorite event since the blizzard of 78. In my area (south of Boston) 20 in.+ fell and it was the 3rd all snow event in a row for SE New England. We actually had 1 more snowfall 2 or 3 days later of 5 in. making 4 in a row without any rain involved. It was also "long duration" as 2 heavy snow periods occured. The 1st as moisture overan cold arctic air in place and the coastal front backed in from the coast. The 2nd occured as the storm wrapped up off southern New Jersey and bands of heavy snow lifted from south to north across our area. The infamous "dry slot" worked in during day 2 of the storm leaving us only with low level ocean enhancement and back edge bands to finish the storm out. All totaled about 35 hrs continuous snowfall and total on the ground(adding the earlier 2 storms) nearly 3 ft on the level!!!!

[Anonymous]

Woodbridge got about 24 inches from the Bliz of 96, then they got 3 inches, then 5 more.

Guess where I was during the storm?

I was down in Central Texas visiting my Mom in Austin. Too bad for me; the airports were backed up and there was just no way Jeb could get back to VA to see the big storm

That was tough for me, but I laugh about it now. I finally did get back to N VA about three days after the storm.

There was 2 feet of snow on the level, and walking was interesting. I was digging and digging and digging and digging and digging.

WOW what a nice snow!!!!! WOW what a nice winter we had!!!!


ARCTIC BLAST JEB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[isobar]

Like you said, John, that whole winter just ROCKED!!!!!!
In So. New Hampshire where I lived we totalled 135" for the season.

[Anonymous]

Like you said, John, that whole winter just ROCKED!!!!!!
In So. New Hampshire where I lived we totalled 135" for the season.

You got me beat, isobar. We racked up 57.5 inches in the winter of 1995-96.






-ARCTIC BLAST JEB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chris the Weather Man]

I think we, had about 80 inches in 1995/1996!