Winter Storm Spotlight: Blizzard of '96
- JDJweather
- Jun 5
- 2 min read
The January 7-8th, 1996 Blizzard was recently added to our Historic Storm Archive with a full radar animation of the entire storm. If you're of a certain age, you probably remember this record breaking nor'easter. The blizzard of '96 was one of the most severe and deadly storms to ever hit the Northeast U.S. It was ranked number two of all time in the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale; Category 5 "extreme".
On the early morning hours of January 7th light snow entered the Tri-State Area from southwest to northeast. By the afternoon moderate to heavy snow enveloped all of the Tri-State area and Southern New England. Snowfall rates approached two to three inches per hour at times and even some thunder and lightning was reported near the Baltimore/D.C. area.
Heavy snow continued throughout the night and into the morning on the 8th. As the day progressed on Monday, snow began to lighten up as the radar became a bit more shredded and broken in nature. The last bit of snow curled around Southern New England and pulled out during the evening hours. Wind gusts increased to 30-50mph during the day on Monday. By the time the snow ended, the region was buried under one to two feet of snow, with up to three to four feet in the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia.
The Blizzard of '96 was not only one of the biggest snowstorms of all time but one of the deadliest and costliest for the Eastern U.S. There was over 150 fatalities reported and up to three billion dollars in damages associated with this storm. It ranks in the top 10 in many big cities including New York and Boston and is number one for Philadelphia, P.A.
If you're interested in seeing more images from this storm check out our archive of the event.
For more historic snowstorms see our Historic Storm Archive.
For a full list of all snowstorms affecting our region, see Winter Storm Archive (in progress).
This past Winter 24/25.
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