Great Blizzard of 1888

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Great Blizzard of 1888

The Great Blizzard of 1888 (March 11 – March 14 1888) was one of the most severe blizzard

Blizzard

A blizzard is a severe winter storm condition characterized by low temperatures, strong winds, and heavy blowing snow. Blizzards are formed when a high pressure area, also known as a ridge, interacts with a low pressure area; this results in the advection of air from the high pressure zone into the low pressure area....
s in United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
' recorded history. Snowfalls of 40-50 inches (102-127 cm) fell in parts of New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
, New York

New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
and Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. The state borders New York to the west and south , Massachusetts to the north, and Rhode Island to the east....
, and sustained winds of over produced snowdrift

Snowdrift

A snowdrift is a deposit of snow created by wind into a mound during snowstorms. They resemble sand dunes and are formed in a similar manner, namely, by wind moving light snow and depositing it when the wind is slowed, usually against a stationary object....
s in excess of . Railroads

Rail transport

Rail transport is the conveyance of passengers and goods by means of wheeled vehicles running along railways . Rail transport is part of the logistics chain, which facilitates international trade and economic growth....
were shut down and people were confined to their houses for up to a week.

weather preceding the blizzard was unseasonably mild with heavy rain

Rain

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Storm details

The weather preceding the blizzard was unseasonably mild with heavy rain

Rain

Rain is liquid precipitation . On Earth, it is the condensation of atmospheric water vapor into droplet heavy enough to fall, often making it to the surface....
s that turned to snow as temperatures dropped rapidly. The storm began in earnest shortly after midnight on March 12, and continued unabated for a full day and a half. The National Weather Service

National Weather Service

The National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States Federal government of the United States....
estimated this incredible Nor'easter

Nor'easter

A nor'easter is a kind of macro-scale storm along the East Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada. A nor'easter is so named because the winds in a nor'easter come from the Ordinal direction, especially in the coastal areas of the Northeastern United States and Atlantic Canada....
dumped of snow in Connecticut and Massachusetts, while New Jersey and New York had . Most of northern Vermont received from to in this storm.

Drifts were reported to be 25-40 feet, over the tops of houses from New York to New England, with reports of drifts covering 3-story houses. The highest drift was recorded in Gravesend, New York

Gravesend, Brooklyn

Gravesend is a neighborhood in the south-central section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, United States.The derivation of the name is unclear....
. Fifty eight inches of snow was reported in Saratoga Springs, New York

Saratoga Springs, New York

Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, New York, United States. The population was 26,186 at the United States Census 2000. The name reflects the presence of spring in the area....
; 48 inches in Albany, New York

Albany, New York

Albany is the Capital of the state of New York and the county seat of Albany County, New York. Albany is roughly 136 miles north of the city of New York City, and slightly south of the confluence of the Mohawk River and Hudson Rivers....
; 45 inches of snow in New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven is the third largest municipality in Connecticut, after Bridgeport, Connecticut and Hartford, with a core population of about 124,000 people....
; and 22 inches of snow in New York City

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. The storm also produced severe winds; wind gusts were reported, although the highest official report in New York City was , with a gust reported at Block Island

Block Island

Block Island is part of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and is located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately south of the coast of Rhode Island, and is separated from the mainland by Block Island Sound....
. New York's Central Park Observatory reported a minimum temperature of , and a daytime average of on March 13, the coldest ever for March.

Effects

The storm, referred to as the Great White Hurricane, paralyzed the East Coast

East Coast of the United States

The East Coast of the United States, also known as the "Eastern Seaboard" or "Atlantic Seaboard", refers to the easternmost coastal states in the central and northern United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada....
from the Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia....
to Maine

Maine

The State of Maine is a U.S. state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast....
, as well as the Atlantic provinces of Canada

Atlantic Canada

File:Atlantic Canada.svgAtlantic Canada, also known as the Atlantic provinces, is the List of regions of Canada of Canada comprising four Provinces and territories of Canada located on the Atlantic Ocean: the three Maritimes ? New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island ? and Newfoundland and Labrador....
. Telegraph infrastructure

Infrastructure

Infrastructure can be defined as the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise , or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function....
was disabled, isolating Montreal

Montreal

Montreal, or Montr?al, is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada of Quebec and the List of largest cities and second largest cities by country List of the 100 largest municipalities in Canada by population....
and most of the large northeastern U.S. cities from Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the Capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790....
to Boston for days. Following the storm, New York began placing its telegraph and telephone infrastructure underground to prevent their destruction. From Chesapeake Bay through the New England area, over 200 ships were either grounded or wrecked, resulting in the deaths of at least 100 seamen.

In New York, neither rail nor road transport was possible anywhere for days, and drifts across the New York—New Haven rail line

New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad

The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeast United States from 1872 to 1968. Commonly referred to as the New Haven, the railroad served the states of Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts....
at Westport, Connecticut

Westport, Connecticut

Westport is a coastal New England town located on Long Island Sound in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Connecticut, 47 miles north of New York City in the United States....
took eight days to clear; transportation gridlock as a result of the storm was partially responsible for the creation of the first underground subway

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is "a body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts formed in 1964 to finance and operate most bus, Rapid transit, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, area....
system in the United States, which opened nine years later in Boston.e web| url = http://www.massmoments.com/moment.cfm?mid=77 | title = Blizzard shuts down Massachusetts | publisher= Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities | quote = Perhaps the most important legacy of the Blizzard of 1888 was the Boston subway system. Alarmed by the paralysis and economic damage the storm caused, Boston decided to build a subway.}}re station]]s were immobilized, and property loss from fire

Fire

Fire is the oxidation of a combustion material releasing heat, light, and various Chemical reaction products such as carbon dioxide and water....
alone was estimated at $25 million. Severe flooding occurred after the storm due to melting snow—especially in the Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is one of the five Borough of New York City, located at the western end of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area....
area, which was more susceptible to serious flooding due to its topography

Topography

Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, Natural satellite, and asteroids. It is also the description of such surface shapes and features ....
. Efforts were made to push the snow into the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
. Over 400 people died from the storm and the ensuing cold, including 200 in New York City alone.

"The Day of the Blizzard"

The Day of the Blizzard by Marietta D. Moskin is a fictionalized children's book, which tracks a young girl's journey to find her ailing mother's brooch during the storm.

Great Blizzard of 1888

Storm details

Effects

"The Day of the Blizzard"

Pictures

Further reading