Blizzard of ‘93

Source: NOAA's Celebrating 200 Years Collection

March 12-15, 1993  Causing 300 deaths and $6 to $10 billion in damages, the “Storm of the Century” lived up to the hype. Those staggering numbers might have been far worse, however, were it not for significant advances in U.S. weather forecasting not long before the mighty blizzard struck. Sophisticated computer models allowed the National Weather Service to issue a severe storm warning two days in advance. For the first time, governors could declare a state of emergency before a single snowflake fell. But that didn’t stop them from falling—and with a vengeance. The storm affected at least 26 U.S. states and much of eastern Canada, reaching as far south as Jacksonville, Florida. It dumped several feet of snow on regions that typically see less than an inch of powder a year, forcing officials to scrape together winter emergency plans. On the Atlantic seaboard, hurricane-force winds stirred up mammoth swells, and more than 15 homes were swept out to sea on the eastern shore of Long Island.

 Weather channel: Superstorm of 1993 Remembered

The Facts ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/techrpts/tr9301/tr9301.pdf

Death Toll  Florida 44  New York 23  South Carolina 1  Alabama 16  Georgia 15  Tennessee 14   North Carolina 19  Kentucky 5  Virginia 13  Maryland 3  West Virginia 4  Maine 2  Pennsylvania 49 ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/tec hrpts/tr9301/tr9301.pdf

Highest recorded wind gusts included:  144 MPH on Mount Washington, NH  109 MPH in the Dry Tortugas (west of Key West, FL)  101 MPH on Flattop Mountain, NC (by NCDC employee Grant Goodge--due to ice accumulation on anemometer, he estimated MPH)  98 MPH in South Timbalier, LA  92 MPH on South Marsh Island, LA  90 MPH in Myrtle Beach, SC  89 MPH in Fire Island, NY  83 MPH in Vero Beach, FL  81 MPH in Boston, MA  71 MPH at La Guardia Arpt, NY

A tremendous volume of water  The National Weather Service's Office of Hydrology estimated the volume of water that fell as snow as 44 million acre-feet.  This is comparable to 40 days' flow on the Mississippi River at New Orleans.

 The '93 storm affected 26 states and about 50% of the nation's population. In fact, on the Saffir-Simpson scale for hurricane strength, it equated to a category 3 hurricane based on storm surge and minimum pressure attained.

Day/TimeLatitude N Longitude W Pressure (in millibars) Remarks 12/ 7 p.m SSE of New Orleans, LA 11p.m SW of Pensacola, FL 13/ 7 a.m mi. NW of Alma, GA 1 p.m mi. SE of Raleigh/Durham, NC 7 p.m mi. SW of Dover, DE 11 p.m mi. NW of LaGuardia, NY 14/ 7 am NE of Bangor, ME; center diffuse

Data  mmary.rxml?hret=/guides/crclm/prjct/strm93/data.rxml mmary.rxml?hret=/guides/crclm/prjct/strm93/data.rxml

For local reporting…  14/news/ _1_hurricane-force-gusts-art-kraus- powerful-storms