Weather Disasters and Blizzards

The Storm of the Century is the worst weather storm to have occurred within the past one hundred years.  For the most part, the term Storm of the Century is typically applied to snow blizzards, and several blizzards have been considered the Storm of the Century.  Large, devastating weather storms can produce flash flooding, flooding, freezing rain, hail, hurricanes, sleet, snow, storm surges, and tornadoes (in rare instances, f5 tornados, the most devastating of all tornadoes).   Finally, weather disasters and include blizzards, which can prove particularly destructive: there have been blizzards in the past that have crippled the regions in which they have struck.  The blizzard of 1977 as well as the blizzard of 1993 has been considered the Storm of the Century. 

The Blizzard of 1977

The blizzard of 77 was a weather disaster that struck the east coast on January 28, 1977.  On that Friday morning, while there were absolutely no signs of a pending weather disaster, by the afternoon the blizzard of 1977 weather storm had struck.  In the blizzard of 77, the temperatures outside dropped to nearly zero degrees Fahrenheit and quite suddenly, the winds picked up and peaked at an average of 70 miles per hour.  The snow blizzard produced a frightening wind chill of 60 degrees below – the Storm of the Century was underway.  The visibility factor of the snow blizzard was at zero for 24+ hours, 29 people lost their lives, seven counties were deemed national disaster areas, and the storm damage took almost a month to clean up.

The Blizzard of 1993

The blizzard of 93 delivered some 22 inches of snow onto the eastern coast and the weather storm raged for three days, from March 12th through to the 15th.  The weather disaster of 93 produced some severe storm damage: some roofs collapsed under the incredible pressure from so much snow in a short period.  The blizzard of 93 involved the entire eastern coast from Canada all the way to Florida.  The number of deaths that occurred in the blizzard of 93 far outweighed the number of fatalities in the blizzard of 77:  a total of 270 people lost their lives and an additional 48 people were missing at sea in the blizzard of 93.  The blizzard produced storm damage that left 3 million homes without electricity, 15 tornados occurred in Florida, and the overall storm damage was estimated at a whopping 6 billion dollars.