The Great Blizzard of 1888

Prelude to a Storm

The blizzard of March 1888 is considered to be one of the most famous blizzards in American history on record because it was created by a rare combination of meteorological events. In fact two blizzards occurred that year, one in the Midwest around the Nebraska region on January 12, 1888, and the other in the northeastern region of the country on March 11-14, 1888. The blizzard of March is often called the “The Great Blizzard of 1888″ and by another name “The White Hurricane.” This is the first blizzard to be captured in pictures.

It was calm and unseasonably mild the day before the storm. It was bright, clear, sunny day without a single cloud in the sky. Everyone in New York and along the eastern region of the country was enjoying balmy weather before the storm. Temperatures on March 11 were in the 40s and 50s. People have already started planning their gardens. It was only about a week before the first day of spring. On that day heavy rain began falling and on March 12, the temperature dropped dramatically and the wind began to pickup and the heavy rain turned to heavy snow.

What started the Storm

The Great Blizzard of 1888 started as a result of a collision of two major low pressure systems. A mass of Arctic air from Canada moved in from the West to combine with a warm air mass from the Gulf of Mexico that moved up the coast as a Nor’easter. Today people along the East coast up to the Northeast hear about this system all the time. The two storms combined right off the Jersey coast and started a super storm like a hurricane with an eye with wind whipping around it. The storm stalled for four days off the coast.

The Storm

Conditions continued to get worse after the storm became more organized. Light snow started falling about 3 PM and by midnight there were 3 inches of snow on the ground. By midnight the snow intensified. Wind gusts up to 85 miles per hour were reported in New York City and sailors at sea called the storm “The White Hurricane” because of the blinding wind slept snow. The weather got so cold, with temperatures below zero, that sparrows were found frozen on the telephone wires. The next morning during the peak of the storm residents in New York witnessed a total whiteout and some residents bravely walked across a semi-frozen East River between Queens and Manhattan. When the storm hit New York, 15,000 people were left stranded on elevated trains in the city. Even the Stock Exchange was affected by the storm, only 30 of the 1,000 people employed showed up for work that day. After the storm the Stock Exchange remain closed for three days.