The Great Blizzard of 1888
- JDJweather
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
The Great Blizzard of March 11-14th, 1888 was the most damaging and severe blizzard in recorded history. A widespread 30-50" of snow fell in Southern New England and throughout the capital district of New York. The highest report was in Saratoga Springs with a mind boggling 58". Drifts average 30-40 feet across a large area and maxed out around 52 feet. The storm lasted nearly four days and cost the equivalent of nearly a billion dollars in damages.
Storm History
Very late in the day on March 11th, low pressure emerged off the North Carolina coast and began deepening as it tracked north-northeast. Temperatures ahead of the storm were seasonably mild with upper 30s and low 40s across the area. This allowed precipitation to start as mainly rain, especially along the coast and southeast areas. On March 12th, low pressure deepened rapidly and stalled out just south of the Cape. Heavy rain changed to wind whipped snow as the rain/snow line crashed southeast. Bands of extremely heavy snow and wind rotated in from the storm center. By the 13th, the system had not moved much from it's previous position. In fact, it retrograded west and did a small loop passing over it's original track to the south. The worst conditions were felt on the 12th and 13th and by early March 14th, low pressure began pulling away with snow tapering off. Much of the region from Southern New England to the Tri-State saw a widespread 2 feet or more of snow with some areas approaching 50". Significantly less snow fell across SE Massachusetts with only 1-5" there.
Snowfall Maps
In honor of this storm we have remapped the entire event for the following areas: Lower Northeast, Southern New England, Tri-State Area and Connecticut. Reports we're derived from Judd Caplovich's book titled "Blizzard! The Great Storm of 1888", NWS COOP reports and official climate sites. There are 168 reports total for these maps. These high resolution maps are the most detailed recounting of the storm available online.
If you would like to see more images and graphics related to the storm visit our Blizzard of 1888 page.
All of our historic snowstorms have been updated and remapped from 1888-2026. New storms are being added to the page each week. Several major storms from the 1960s and 1970s are up next.
-JDJ
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