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Vote: Best Snowstorm You Experienced

Zelocita Weather

By Zelocita Weather,
in New York City Metro

Best Snowstorm  

110 members have voted

  1. 1. What was your favorite snowstorm?

    • Boxing Day Dec 2010
      17
    • January 1996 Blizzard
      30
    • January 2016 Blizzard
      43
    • Other
      20

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EasternLI

EasternLI

Posted
Posted

December 19-20 2009 is tops for me. 27" of snow in my hood complete with thunder and lightning. That's my benchmark storm for here. However I'd have to consider 1978 if I could remember it, being that I was 1 year old at the time. The account from my father is that the snow at the end of the driveway was over his head, likely a drift, but still he's 6'2". Also, I've just recently been treated to seeing some personal photos of this area that someone took right after that storm. Cars were invisible in the photos, people were digging down to try to find them. I wish I could have gotten some copies of the pictures.

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RU848789

RU848789

Posted
Posted

For me, we had nearly 30" for Jan-96, with a few hours under a band of the most intense snow I've probably seen for a sustained period - it was the middle of the night and I remember just walking around in it in awe.  Yesterday was 2nd for me (22") since I've been in Metuchen (23 years).  

 

However, Feb-83 is probably 2nd for me, overall, as I was a junior at Rutgers and it hit on a Friday afternoon and dumped around 20" in a short time, which was impressive.  It was certainly the most fun I've had in a storm, as the Busch campus pub stayed open and the band, consisting of friends of mine, still went on stage, as everyone lived on campus (RU shut down, but let the pub stay open) - it was an insane night with drunken snowball fights in the pub, building anatomically correct snowmen, and general partying all night, as the pub stayed open for an extra hour or so.  

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Blizzwalker

Blizzwalker

Posted
Posted

Hi-

 

   First time posting.  Have learned a lot in 3 years. 

 

Best storm was superstorm 93.  I was 38, pretty experienced at winter backpacking, knew storm was coming.  I drove to Catskills night before with my friend, parked car at Woodland valley Rd trailhead out of Phonecia.  Was intending to climb Slide Mt.  Woke at 7 AM to storm in progress, walked for 2 hrs and had to stop with wind-driven heavy snow.  Set up tent with wall of snow around it and rode out that storm.

 

Next AM, took 2 steps from tent site, sank in up to my neck in drift.  Took us all day to get back to trailhead--  car totally walled in by plow.  Made it into Phonecia via family that offered us ride. Read there was 40 inches at Windham.  Will never forget --although my kids have grown a bit weary of the 27th retelling...

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JBG

JBG

Posted
Posted

January 2016 was for me a close second to Boxing Day. I like cold, dry, blowy storms. Both fit the bill but Boxing Day gave us over 20" and this one, between 12" and 15". Both beet out 1996 (similar characteristics) for two reasons:

  1. Both Boxing Day and January 2016 were mostly during the daytime; and
  2. I was driving miserable slowly on the BQE for one of the best parts of January 1996, with my wife being 7 months pregnant. We were looking at birthing hospitals. Not a fun day.
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snywx

snywx

Posted
Posted

Hi-

 

   First time posting.  Have learned a lot in 3 years. 

 

Best storm was superstorm 93.  I was 38, pretty experienced at winter backpacking, knew storm was coming.  I drove to Catskills night before with my friend, parked car at Woodland valley Rd trailhead out of Phonecia.  Was intending to climb Slide Mt.  Woke at 7 AM to storm in progress, walked for 2 hrs and had to stop with wind-driven heavy snow.  Set up tent with wall of snow around it and rode out that storm.

 

Next AM, took 2 steps from tent site, sank in up to my neck in drift.  Took us all day to get back to trailhead--  car totally walled in by plow.  Made it into Phonecia via family that offered us ride. Read there was 40 inches at Windham.  Will never forget --although my kids have grown a bit weary of the 27th retelling...

 

Welcome neighbor :)

 

Whereabouts in Middletown?

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Metasequoia

Metasequoia

Posted
Posted

When I was seven years old I remember a two foot blizzard in Schenectady (1983)...my sisters still went to school that day. I also lived through the January 25, 2000 freakish storm in Raleigh, NC that dropped nearly two feet of snow, paralyzing the region for a week.

This weekends storm was the best though. Perfect combination of heavy snow, wind, long duration, and New York City as a backdrop. We also beat the forecast and had some of the higher totals on the East Coast...always a plus.

I'm afraid it will be tough to beat this blizzard. Getting much more than 30 inches of snow is such a rare meterologisical event in this region, especially outside of areas with elevated terrain.

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snywx

snywx

Posted
Posted

February 2014 for storm dynamics and snowfall rates, October 2011 for novelty.

 

Lots of good storms before the last half of a decade, but the recent ones just seem to pack more of a punch.

 

Completely forgot about this one. I received about 19" from that storm. I believe that was the 2 part storm..

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snywx

snywx

Posted
Posted

On Top Notch Rd, off of Pilgrims Corner...Have been seeing your NW/ interior posts for years.   I was triumphant when we switched from WWA to Winter Storm Warning around midnight....only to get fringed again.  There's hope for this next system....

 

Nice! Im just around the corner from Kirbytown Farms..

 

You should post more! Glad to have you on..

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coh

coh

Posted
Posted

Feb 1978 hands down. Feb 1983 distant second.

 

A little background...born 1962, lived on Long Island (Seaford) from 1965-1980, probably overall the WORST period of time for snow lovers. So the 1978 storm, which dumped 24" in our area easily takes the prize. Spent the next 4 winters at RU where I experienced the 1983 storm which was the best thundersnow event I've ever seen...multiple close CG strikes. Then moved out of the area, spending time in Albany, then Maryland, Virginia, and now Rochester. Just missed the 1993 superstorm as we had just moved from Albany to Maryland.

 

Up here, we average about 100" a year, but it's just not the same. You get day after day of 1-2" powder dry snow that blows all over the place and eventually builds up a decent snowpack most years, but the types of storms you've all been fortunate to experience over the last 10-20 years are pretty rare up here, unless you live in one of the prime snowbelt locations.

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cjr231

cjr231

Posted
Posted

Boxing Day for me. But this weekend's blizzard is a very, very close second.

 

I experienced Boxing Day on Staten Island and was snowed in at my parent's for over 3 days since a plow didn't come by once. The drifting was just insane in places. Cars were buried and trapped on streets all over. Bloomberg really dropped the ball with that storm. Snowfall there was close to 30 inches so it was pretty comparable to this past weekend. The winds definitely surpassed what I experienced in 2016 though. It was just ripping for 12 hours under that crazy band over SI and Essex county NJ. Something I will never, ever forget as a weather enthusiast. And the lead up tracking was so much fun with the emotional roller coaster we went on. Good times. Even when asking my parents how they fared in this storm, they responded "it was ok. really nothing compared to that one we got after christmas a few years ago". 

 

This past weekend does get bonus points for mainly occurring during the day time however and the tracking definitely was a roller coaster of its own. 

 

PD2 is probably third for me. I was too young in 96, I remember it but barely so I can't really measure it to the others. 

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billgwx

billgwx

Posted
Posted

My partiality to the Blizzard of '78 probably has a lot to do with my age at the time too...going on 15, still highly impressionable, had never seen drifts 5+ feet tall before, and one of the NOAA Weather Radio voices at the time (who in this case turned out to be Joe Cioffi) almost made it sound like the end of the world was coming! Plus, it and a storm a couple of weeks before that was forecast be rain broke a K-U style storm drought for NYC going back to 1969! You younguns are spoiled and think every year should have a storm like that. :snowing:

 

Speaking of 1969, I remember that one too...the infamous Lindsay snowstorm where I watched cars getting stranded out my bedroom window, and got to play in the deep snow the next day in the middle of a main thorofare in the Bronx. For me that's #2. The seed was planted earlier than I first realized!

 

Too many storms since 1978 have had more snow, but the only one of them to really give me the creeps was Boxing Day 2010 with its wind, when I forecast 60-mph gusts for Long Island the day before. Felt like that a little about yesterday's storm too, and in fact came home yesterday to see drifts on my house almost as high as those from the '78 blizzard!

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billgwx

billgwx

Posted
Posted

Biggest Snowstorms (One Foot or More) at Central Park (1869 to Present)

     Amount
     (In.)    Date(s)
 1    26.9    February 11-12, 2006
 2    26.8    January 22-24, 2016
 3    25.8    December 26-27, 1947
 4    21.0    March 12-14, 1888
 5    20.9    February 25-26, 2010
 6    20.2    January 7-8, 1996
 7    20.0    December 26-27, 2010
 8    19.8    February 16-17, 2003
 9    19.0    January 26-27, 2011
10    18.1    January 22-24, 1935
      18.1    March 7-8, 1941
12    18.0    December 26, 1872
13    17.7    February 5-7, 1978
14    17.6    February 11-12, 1983
15    17.5    February 4-7, 1920
16    17.4    February 3-4, 1961
17    16.0    December 19-20, 1948
      16.0    February 12-13, 1899
19    15.3    February 9-10, 1969
20    15.2    December 11-12, 1960
21    14.5    March 3-4, 1960
      14.5    March 1-2, 1914
23    14.0    December 5-7, 2003
24    13.8    January 22-23, 2005
25    13.7    December 21-22, 1959
26    13.6    January 19-20, 1978
27    13.0    January 15-16, 1879
      13.0    January 1-2, 1877
29    12.8    February 11, 1994
30    12.7    February 19, 1979
      12.7    December 15, 1916
32    12.5    February 13-14, 2014
      12.5    February 7, 1967
      12.5    January 12-13, 1964
35    12.0    December 30, 2000
      12.0    February 9-10, 1926

 

Look at that list...7 of the top 10 since 1996, 12 out of 36 since 1994, and 20 out of 36 in my lifetime when maybe that number should have only been 12 or so. And I could include a couple more that crushed us out here on Long Island but not NYC. Uptick?!?
 

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Superstorm93

Superstorm93

Posted
Posted

This is a hard one. 

 

1996: I had 28" in Palisades Park, NJ and was barely two at the time...

 

2016: I had 27.5" in Millersville, PA and tracked/forecasted the whole thing since it was over Russia.

 

The Great Blizzard of 2016 was probably the most prolonged Blizzard conditions I have ever witnessed, beating out Boxing Day and Jan 2005, and has some really interesting memories of a snow event. 

 

Sorry old timers, but I have to pick the GB of 2016 

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weatherpruf

weatherpruf

Posted
Posted

This, i live in the same area.

 

Here is a pic i took of middle country road in lake grove just after that storm

 

222774_168749949939087_1024398205_n.jpg?

Well this was a 6-8 storm in eastern portions of NJ, so really was nothing IMBY...hard to get a storm that hits everyone. 96 did. The other day did. Feb 2003 did. All of the others had cutoffs within the metro area.

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danstorm

danstorm

Posted
Posted

This is so hard.

1) Jan 1996, for sheer novelty - had 2' at my home in Ridgefield

2) Jan 2005 - near hurricane force winds on S Shore of Ma (living in Boston, went down with a buddy to his summer home). Probably 27 but no way of knowing

3) BD - lived in Battery Park, incredible winds and brutal cold plus the city completely dropped the ball (like 6 plow trucks stuck at the end of the West Side Highway)

4) Jan 12, 2011 - was again in Ridgefield with 24 mainly surprise inches... Best mesoscale band I've ever experienced - 5"+/hr and a foot in 3. And I barely caught it, over the NY border had 10.

5) Jan 2016 - hate to rank it this low. 14 consecutive hours of SN/SN+, son's first biggie (though he didn't love being in it as much as I'd hoped), did quite well but epic band rocked the city extending WSW ... meant EWR came in 6" more than me. Still were moderate/heavy throughout, so no sucker hole, but 1-2" per vs 3 per will mean differences.

Many more I could list, Dec 2003 comes to mind living in Boston but stayed with gf in NYC... Feb 2001 crushed me in New Haven as a college kid... PD II, Jan 3011 (the other one), Snowtober, Jan 93 would have been epic if not for sleet... These are etched in our memories for our entire lives.

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