These are the 10 worst winter storms to hit Massachusetts, from the devastating 1991 ‘Perfect Storm’ to the soul-crushing Great Blizzard of 1888
Updated Feb 10, 2021;
Posted Feb 10, 2021
This view looks south on Main Street, Springfield shortly after the fabled Blizzard of 1888 paralyzed the region. (The Republican file photo)
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Cities and towns throughout Massachusetts were left unrecognizable in March 1888, buried underneath a blanket of white, blasted by wind-whipped snowdrifts of roughly 20 feet and battered severely by what has gone down in the books as one of the largest winter storms to hit the Northeast.
In the wake of the Great Blizzard of 1888, the title the storm rightfully earned, hundreds were left dead across the region. In Massachusetts, residents in the Berkshires had to dig out of as much as 40 inches of snow while dealing with bone-chilling temperatures.
Patti McConville/Photographer s Choice/Getty Images
On Jan. 6, 1996, the longest weather-related closure of the U.S. federal government loomed and it all started with just a few snowflakes. Before long, however, the few lonely snowflakes that began falling in Washington, D.C. at 9 p.m. began to amass into an army as a blustery nor easter colliding with warmer winds in the Gulf of Mexico brought more and more snow.
In Washington, D.C., 12 inches (30.4 centimeters) of snow fell in just 24 hours. Nearby cities, such as Lynchburg, Va., received 20 inches (50.8 centimeters) of snow in the same time period. Thanks to record-setting snowfalls (like those around Lynchburg and the District of Columbia) and gusting winds, there were blizzard conditions that made travel and commuting to work a near impossibility. Then-President Bill Clinton declared D.C. a disaster area and the federal government shut down for a record-setting six days. Nine states were also declared disaster areas
Nor easter expected? Blizzard in the forecast? Either prediction is a sure sign that media outlets will dig up photos and facts from historic storms of years past. Sure to be included are the Blizzard of 1888 and the Blizzard of 1978.
But were those the worst storms to hit the Berkshires?
The
Blizzard of 1978 began as a typical nor easter Feb. 5, developing into a devastating blizzard that wrought havoc on New England, New Jersey and metropolitan New York over the course of the next two days. Heavy snows and high winds, reaching 86 to 110 mph on the coast, forced about 10,000 people into emergency shelters and destroyed 3,500 homes. Travelers abandoned their cars on the Massachusetts Turnpike, and 100 deaths are attributed to the storm.