Snowbound And Stranded

America's relationship with winter has always been complicated, and snowstorms have written some of the darkest chapters. You might know about one or two famous blizzards, but the full list reads like a disaster catalog. Fleets of ships disappeared beneath frozen lake waters. Children froze as they walked home from school. The patterns repeat, but each of the following storms brought its own brand of terror. Here are just 20 terrible ones in American history to read about.

Forsaken Fotos on Wikimedia

1. Great Blizzard 1888

March 1888 started innocently with spring-like weather before catastrophe struck. Over 400 people died when the Great Blizzard buried the Northeast under 58 inches of snow in some areas. Wind gusts hit 80 miles per hour, creating 50-foot drifts that swallowed buildings. 

Breading G. Way on Wikimedia

2. Schoolhouse Blizzard 1888

Warm weather deceived settlers on January 12, 1888, before temperatures plummeted 55 degrees within hours. Witnesses described the blizzard arriving "like a shot," turning the afternoon warmth into a minus-57-degree cold. Newspapers called it "Midnight at Noon" as whiteout conditions obliterated visibility completely.

Unknown authorUnknown author on Wikimedia

3. Knickerbocker Storm 1922

A Saturday night at the movies turned into Washington D.C.'s deadliest disaster when the Knickerbocker Theatre's roof collapsed mid-show. Heavy, wet snow had been falling for two days, accumulating 28 inches across the Mid-Atlantic by January 28, 1922. 

National Photo Company Collection on Wikimedia

4. Great Lakes Storm 1913

The White Hurricane combined blizzard conditions with hurricane-force winds. Around 12-19 ships sank, and over 250 sailors passed away as 90-mile-per-hour gusts created 35-foot waves. Eight massive freighters disappeared in Lake Huron during just six hours.

Detroit Publishing Co., publisher. Gift to LOC; State Historical Society of Colorado; 1949. on Wikimedia

5. Armistice Day Blizzard 1940

Duck hunters enjoyed beautiful weather on the Mississippi River that November morning, unaware of what was racing toward them. Within hours, arctic air slammed into the Midwest like a freight train, dropping temperatures to 47 below zero while 80-mile-per-hour winds whipped up 20-foot drifts. 

on Wikimedia

6. Great Appalachian Storm 1950

Coburn Creek, West Virginia, got hammered with 62 inches of snow while winds reached 160 miles per hour in New England. This Thanksgiving weekend monster created the strangest weather contrasts ever recorded when it struck on November 24, 1950. 

NOAA Central Library, Silver Spring, Maryland on Wikimedia

7. North American Blizzard 1966

State troopers found about 100 inches of snow sitting on level ground at Fair Haven, where nothing had been before the storm began on January 29, 1966. Syracuse got buried under 42.3 inches while snowdrifts totally covered two-story houses. 

NOAA Library on Wikimedia

8. Chicago Blizzard 1967

January 26 arrived, and 23 inches of snow fell in 29 hours, creating the worst single-storm snowfall in the city's history. The timing was brutal—snow started during the morning commute, and by noon, 50,000 abandoned cars and 800 stranded buses littered the streets. 

@19Photographer76 on Wikimedia

9. Buffalo Blizzard 1977

Lake Erie had already frozen solid, with over 90 inches of snow on top, when the blizzard struck. 70-mile-per-hour winds didn't bring much new snow, just 12 inches, but whipped the existing snowpack into 30-foot drifts that swallowed entire houses. 

Department of Transportation on Wikimedia

10. Great Blizzard 1978

The Great Blizzard of 1978 struck the Midwest and Northeast in late January, dumping up to four feet of snow and producing hurricane-force winds. Whiteout conditions shut down cities, stranded thousands, and caused around 100 unfortunate deaths in all.

Dahoov2 on Wikimedia

11. Superstorm Of 1993

Meteorologists predicted this monster five days in advance, yet nobody was fully prepared for what arrived on March 12. The storm stretched from Canada to Honduras at its peak. It affected 40% of America's population, with snowfall recorded as far south as the Florida Panhandle. 

Thelmadatter on Wikimedia

12. January Blizzard 1996

It is said that Philadelphia ran out of places to dump snow, so crews literally backed dump trucks onto bridges and tossed the snow into the Schuylkill River. The Blizzard of '96 paralyzed the East Coast from January 6–8, burying Snowshoe.

Samshawv on Wikimedia

13. Presidents Day Storm 2003

Baltimore and Boston shattered their all-time single-storm snowfall records when this February blizzard dumped historic accumulations across the Northeast. Schools closed for an entire week while snowfall rates reached four inches per hour. Mountains of West Virginia and Maryland vanished under 50 inches.

Pixel23 on Wikimedia

14. Groundhog Day Blizzard 2011

Lake Shore Drive turned into an arctic parking lot as 700 drivers found themselves trapped for hours. Chicago recorded 21.2 inches of snow during 40 straight hours of relentless snowfall, making it the city's third-largest storm ever.

ECP from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA on Wikimedia

15. The Christmas Blizzard 2010

Back-to-back blizzards struck the same areas within days, earning this late December storm its apocalyptic nickname. The post-Christmas nightmare combined two separate storm systems that pummeled the East Coast from December 26–27, 2010. It featured the rare phenomenon of thundersnow across major cities. 

dbking on Wikimedia

16. Winter Storm Jonas 2016

Snowfall rates exceeded three inches per hour as Jonas buried the Northeast under record-breaking accumulations in late January 2016. States of emergency stretched from Alabama to New York as the storm caused between $500 million and $3 billion in damages.

Danazar on Wikimedia

17. Buffalo November Blizzard 2014

The Buffalo November Blizzard buried western New York under more than seven feet of snow in just days. A powerful lake-effect storm paralyzed highways, collapsed roofs, and trapped residents indoors. Travel bans were enforced as the National Guard responded.

Fortunate4now on Wikimedia

18. December Cyclone 2022

Christmas week turned dangerous when this meteorological disaster hit over the Great Lakes. Buffalo was buried under approximately 55 inches of snow as bone-chilling temperatures plummeted and hurricane-force winds created whiteout conditions that made rescue attempts impossible. 

NOAA on Wikimedia

19. Blizzard Of 1947

It was late January when a relentless blizzard buried the Northeast under record-breaking snow. New York City received over 26 inches, while drifts reached 12 feet in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Snow lingered for weeks, paralyzing cities.

Unknown authorUnknown author on Wikimedia

20. February Blizzard 1899

The South experienced something it had never seen before when this freak storm dumped snow across Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, and Alabama. Temperatures plummeted to record lows across the entire continental United States as part of a massive cold wave that brought arctic air south.

U.S. Weather Bureau on Wikimedia