On Today’s Date: The Blizzard Of 1996 Hammered The East
The Blizzard of 1996 hit the East Coast hard, leaving behind heavy snow and chaos for days
Blizzard, 1996, East Coast, Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore, Snowstorm
Philadelphia: We’re in that time of year when big snowstorms can really hit the East Coast. It was on January 6, 1996, that the infamous Blizzard of 1996 kicked off.
This storm was no joke. Over two days, it dumped more than 20 inches of snow from the Smoky Mountains all the way to Long Island and southern New England.
In fact, it still holds the record for the heaviest snowfall in Philadelphia, with a whopping 30.7 inches. Baltimore got 22.5 inches, and New York City saw 20.2 inches. Winds were fierce too, with gusts over 50 mph creating drifts up to 8 feet high.
Using a special measure called NESIS, which looks at both snow amounts and how widespread the heavy snow was, this blizzard was only the second Category 5 winter storm ever recorded on the East Coast.
As you can imagine, life came to a standstill, especially along the busy I-95 corridor from D.C. to the New York area. Most airports from Virginia up were shut down for a while, and it took days for travel to get back to normal.
Many businesses and government offices were closed for days. The heavy snow and strong winds caused power lines and trees to fall, leading to widespread outages. Some roofs even collapsed under the weight of the snow.
The storm caused over $500 million in insured losses and sadly resulted in 60 deaths, mostly from heart attacks while people were shoveling snow.
Jonathan Erdman, a senior meteorologist at weather.com, has been covering weather events since 1996. He loves discussing extreme and unusual weather. You can find him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook.