SNOWFALL DEBATE IN NYC 1888, 1947, 2006. RECORDS? Over a year ago I was brought to the attention that Hurricane Camille may not have been as strong as the records indicate based on a lot of evidence that can be found at extremeplanet.me/tag/hurricane-camille-overrated/ as well as a few other sources. Michael Laca, Greg Nordstrom, and a few others could go into even further detail than I can regarding the hypothesis. Hurricane Camille for those of you who are unaware was one of three Cat.5 hurricanes to hit the U.S mainland in 1969, since modern record keeping has been done going back to the year 1851. NOAA has Camille hitting the MS coast with sustained winds of 190mph, with gusts going over 200mph. The first Cat.5 to hit in modern recording times was in the FL Keys on Labor Day 1935. In 1992 the third Cat.5 Hurricane hit South FL, known as Hurricane Andrew. Viewing the link above you can interpret that photographic evidence has brought to the attention that Hurricane Andrew was the stronger storm. Christopher Landsea, et. al run a Hurricane Reanalysis Project. Currently they are not up to 1969 yet, but its possible that when they do, the data for Camille will be revised including the sustained winds, and possibly the category of the storm based on the Saffir-Simpson scale as well. This notion of photographic evidence, as well some other pieces of meteorological evidence has always made me wonder about another storm. Some of you may be thinking that perhaps I am looking at comparing the Great New England Hurricane of 1938 to Post Tropical Storm Sandy. (Post Tropical at landfall, despite it being called Superstorm, Frankenstorm, etc) The storm that I am interested in is the Great 1888 Blizzard, the benchmark storm to which all Northeast Blizzards are compared too. Much of what I read about this storm I find as true and believable without any exception. However, one part of the storms recorded history that always made me think twice and do a double take was that of the total snowfall in NYC. The snowfall for NYC for that storm was 22+. Right outside this zone in the boroughs of Queens and Long Island, snow totals were found to be 30-40. To the North of the city a 30-40 zone was also found with 40-50 zones found in upstate, NY and in CT. With such a storm it was very hard to measure snow totals due to the extreme winds of over 75mph+. Of course measurements in Manhattan would be harder to do since the building structure allows for a tunnel effect where the wind gusts are even higher than outside Manhattan Island. The record for snowfall for Manhattan, NY was 26.4 in the Blizzard of 1947. That record was held for 59 years until the Blizzard of 2006 produced a total of 26.9. With two storms being very close in total, with photographic evidence, we can get a good understanding of what snow totals of that amount should appear to be and then compare it to 1888. Also, it should be noted that in 1888 the city was less crowded with vehicles parked on the road and not as much building structure. This means that in 1888 there would be more surface area for snow to fall onto as well as more ground surface for snow to pile. Therefore, when creating snow mounts to clear the streets, you wont see as many piles that have cars buried underneath them as you do for 1947 and 2006. The result is that we would expect the snow piles to be much less than in 1947 and 2006. I have compiled a few albums that I am going to post shortly and I want you to decide which storm appears to have the most snow! (I cant find a graphic of the 1947 snow totals anywhere. If anyone has one please let me know. Paul Jeffrey Kocin) VIEW THE ALBUMS WHEN DONE AND THEN POST BACK UP HERE FOR WHICH STORM, 1888, 1947, 2006 BROUGHT THE MOST SNOW TO NYC! 1888: https://facebook/media/set/?set=oa.574350705987154&type=1 1947: https://facebook/media/set/?set=oa.574352299320328&type=1 2006: https://facebook/media/set/?set=oa.574352829320275&type=1
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 01:43:27 +0000