Today is my birthday. It’s also the 132nd anniversary of the worst blizzard to ever hit the east coast of the United States. Early March is frequently stormy and snowy. Blizzards are not unusual, though typically, snow melts quickly in the spring.
I appear to have been destined for snowy climes. This is not only the story of a storm, but a cautionary tale to never forget winter isn’t over until the daffodils are in bloom. You can never overestimate how dangerous weather in this region can be, especially in the spring when wind patterns become unstable.
I was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 11. There had been a blizzard a few days before, but apparently, it wasn’t a problem because I was safely born in Brooklyn Women’s Hospital. Nonetheless, throughout my childhood, no one in my family ever forgot to mention the blizzard that had hit before I was born. They called me “the blizzard baby” and everyone still talked about it. It was memorable.
Early March is a fine time for big snowstorms in the northeast. March 11, 1888, brought the biggest winter storm to ever hit the region. Known locally as the Brooklyn Blizzard of 1888 and up and down the east coast as the Great White Hurricane, it is my birthday blizzard, a foretaste of Marilyn to come. Or something like that.
Boston’s downtown crossing right after the 1978 blizzard – 28 inches
It was the worst blizzard to ever hit the city of New York. It broke records from Virginia to Maine. It remains one of the worst — and most famous — storms in United States history.
Accumulations of 40 to 50 inches were recorded. It’s hard to picture how much snow that is unless you’ve been through a few really big snowstorms. The deepest snow from a single storm in my life was 34 inches. That’s only a bit more than half the amount of the 1888 blizzard. Despite all the changes and improvements to technology and infrastructure, that amount of snow can paralyze us today.
It’s more snow than any infrastructure can handle. Did I mention snow is heavy? 50 inches on a standard roof might cause it to cave in.
It wasn’t merely a snowstorm. The superstorm included sub-zero temperatures and gale-force winds. It was one of those occasions when people get put in their place, forcibly reminded of how strong Mother Nature is.
The storm blanketed areas of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. It carried with it sustained winds of more than 45-miles per hour. It produced drifts in excess of 50 feet high. My house, at its peak, is about 40 feet, so so we are talking about drifts as high as a three-story building. All forms of transportation were stopped. Roads and railroads were unusable. People were trapped in their houses for up to a week.
The Great White Hurricane paralyzed the Atlantic coast from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine. The storm extended all the way up into the Atlantic provinces of Canada. The telegraph went down, leaving major cities including Montreal, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Boston without communication for days to weeks. Because of the storm, New York began putting its telegraph and telephone wiring underground to protect it from future disasters.
The seas and coastlines were not spared. In total, from the Virginia coast to New England, more than 200 ships were grounded or wrecked and more than 100 seamen died.
130 years later, no winter storm has yet topped the big one of 1888. My special storm!
