March blizzards are few, but they can be fierce
Worst winter storm on record came in March 1993
Ferocious March winter storms are relatively rare, especially when compared with storms in the months of December, January and February. In fact, over the past 60 years, only two of the 33 worst Northeast snowstorms on record have hit in March, the National Weather Service said.
However, both of those March storms were among the nation’s top three most potent winter storms on record. Records for winter storms go back to 1956.
This week is the 24th anniversary of the “Storm of the Century” (aka the “Superstorm”) that walloped the eastern portion of the USA on March 14, 1993, and is the worst winter storm on record. That storm killed more than 270 Americans as it pounded 26 states and much of eastern Canada with heavy snow and howling winds.
Snow fell all the way from Alabama to Maine, the Weather Channel reported, and caused a whopping $5 billion in damage, which is more than many hurricanes.
Winter storms are rated by the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale, which was developed by the weather service on a 1-5 scale similar to hurricanes. The Superstorm in March 1993 is only one of two Category 5 winter storms on record.
Another disastrous March winter storm — the third-worst on that scale — was from March 2-5, 1960. That storm buried areas from western North Carolina to New England in at least 10 inches of snow and crushed the northern suburbs of the New York TriState and eastern New England with more than 20 inches, the Weather Channel said. The storm was rated a Category 4 storm.
Storms are ranked one or two days after the storm is over, the weather service said.
The catastrophic “Blizzard of 1888” hammered the East Coast on March 12 of that year and literally buried hundreds of cities, towns and villages from Maryland to Maine.
Parts of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey picked up 4050 inches of snow; drifts were 30 to 40 feet. Travel was paralyzed for days.
The storm killed 400 people, 200 in New York City alone, according to the book American Weather Stories.