Tomorrow (March 12) is the 16th anniversary of the great Blizzard of 93… Birmingham’s largest snow storm. Here is Bill Murray’s account of the event from “The Weather Notebook”…
An incredible blizzard known as “The Storm of the Century struck the eastern United States from March 12-15, 1993. The storm has been described as the most costly non-tropical storm ever to strike the USA doing an estimated $6 billion in damage. The storm was as strong as a hurricane in terms of winds and low pressure. The pressure dropped to an incredible 28.35 inches mercury or 960 mb when then storm was located over the Chesapeake Bay. Boston recorded a wind gust to 81 mph, the strongest wind they had recorded Hurricane Edna in 1954. In addition, as the storm was intensifying over the Gulf of Mexico, a wind gust to 99 mph was recorded on an offshore oil rig. It dumped incredible amounts of snow from Alabama to New England.
The snow amounts were significant everywhere, but for places like Birmingham, Alabama, the 13 inches recorded during the storm brought the city to a standstill for three days. Mount Leconte NC recorded a whopping 60 inches of snow during the storm. Practically every weather station in West Virginia established a new 24 hour snowfall record during the storm. Syracuse NY was buried under 43 inches of snow. 270 people were killed during the storm and another 48 lost at sea.
The storm also brought a 12 foot storm surge and 15 tornadoes to Florida, where 51 people were killed. Air travel was brought to a halt as every major airport from Atlanta north was closed during the height of the storm. During the late evening into the early morning hours of the 13th, a vicious squall line swept through Florida and spawned 11 tornadoes resulting in 5 fatalities. Thunderstorm winds gusted to 110 mph at Alligator Point and 109 mph at Dry Tortugas. Extremely high tides occurred along the western Florida coast. A 13 foot storm surge occurred in Taylor County, Florida, resulting in 10 deaths with 57 residences destroyed. A 5 to 8 foot storm surge moved ashore in Dixie County. Over 500 homes were destroyed with major damage to another 700 structures.
See some pictures and read some Alabama stories from the event here.
And… see some of our coverage on TV here…
