Now that the historic blizzard has finally ended in the eastern United States, there were a number of records which shattered like ice; and even where records were not broken, the numbers were still rather impressive.
Records Broken in Historic Blizzard: By the Numbers
- Approximately 80 million people were affected by this one storm
- Greater than 12,000 flights were canceled since Friday, January 22, 2016
- 42 inches of snow was reported to have accumulated over the weekend in Glengarry, West Virginia
- 30.5 inches of accumulation in one day is the most snow ever recorded at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York — the previous record was 26 inches from February of 2003
- 27.9 inches of accumulation in one day is the most snow ever recorded at LaGuardia Airport in New York — the previous record was 25.4 inches from February of 2006
- 28.1 inches of accumulation in one day is the most snow ever recorded at Newark Airport — the previous record was 27.8 inches from January of 1996
- 29.2 inches of accumulation in one day is the most snow ever recorded at Baltimore-Washington International Airport — the previous record was 28 inches from January of 1922
- Slightly greater than 30 inches of snow fell in Harrisburg — the capital of Pennsylvania — breaking the record of 25 inches in 1983
- 57 inches of snow unofficially fell at Mount Mitchell in North Carolina — the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi River — which would break the current state record of 50 inches from the blizzard of March of 1993, which was also known as the Storm of the Century.
- 26.8 inches of snow accumulated in Central Park in New York City, which is the second-largest snowfall in recorded history — just shy of the 2010 record by one-tenth of one inch
- At least 30 people died as a result of the storm — five of whom died in New York City from shoveling snow
- At least 15 states were under official states of emergency — reports from all but one with at least one foot of snow in some locations
- With the exception of Cape May, every county in New Jersey experienced at least one report of greater than 12 inches of snow
- Record levels of coastal flooding affected Cape May in New Jersey and Lewes in Delaware on the morning of Saturday, January 23, 2016
- Greater than 500 vehicles were stuck in the snow on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Summary
All of the information in this article pertaining to the record winter storm is compiled from numerous sources; and if any more significant or record numbers come my way, I will amend this article.
Source of graphic: the National Weather Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States.
