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The March Super Storm of 1993

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:44 am
by tron777
It's the 28 year Anniv of the Super Storm of 1993! Copious amounts of snow including blizzard conditions nailed the Eastern US while high waves battered FL along with numerous tornadoes. Pressure records were also set in New England and Nova Scotia, Canada. Here in Cincy, we got clipped by the heavy snow on the backside but folks east of us in Adams co received much more. A good write up on this storm from Met. John Kassell.
28 YEARS AGO TODAY: THE GREAT BLIZZARD OF MARCH 1993
The storm was called by some people "The Storm of the Century". It was an anomaly of nature because of its intensity, size and far reaching affects. At the peak of the storm, its affects stretched from Canada to Central America with its main impact across the Eastern United States and Cuba. The system developed when three independent weather patterns merged in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm system resulted in three days of heavy snowfall, rough seas, blizzards, coastal flooding, tornadoes and very cold temperatures. The storm system was an anomaly in nature. The development began when a blast of cold arctic air (a strong dip in the strong jet stream structure) pushed down through the Plains into the Gulf of Mexico before pushing back up the eastern seaboard. On Friday, March 12, a strong complex of thunderstorms had developed in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, and then merged with a narrow band of snow and rain that was moving in from the western United States. By that evening the two systems had merged with the strong jet stream. The system developed into a very potent storm system which began tracking across the Gulf toward Florida. The United States Coast Guard reported that the sea conditions in the Gulf were absolutely unbelievable. According to the Petty Officer Rob Wyman, he told the Washington Post that the sea conditions looked like a big washing machine. There were huge waves, spray, and hail. Some of the sea bouys had sustained hurricane force winds. The sea was so powerful that a 200 foot freighter sunk 70 miles off Fort Myers, Florida. By the time that the Super Storm had passed, the Coast Guard had deployed more than a hundred planes, helicopters, and boats. The deployed had rescued 235 as well as more than a hundred boats in the Gulf of Mexico. As the storm blew ashore, it created 15 tornadoes over Florida that had overturned mobile homes and launched trees and other debris. Between 4:00 and 5:30 am on Saturday, a storm surge as high as 12 feet in some places came ashore.
The weather models were not able to accurately predict how deeply the system would intensify. The system developed so far south in the Northern Gulf before hitting Florida with a central pressure of 975 millibars. However, NWS models and personnel did recognize the risk with this phenominal storm system. NWS personnel were confident enough to allow several northeastern states to declare a State of Emergency before the snow impacted the region. On the social side of matters, temperatures across the south were rather mild for March and this raised doubts among the public that cold air move in so quickly, much less heavy snowfall in the near future. This coupled with the fact that it doesnt get very cold in the south this time of year anyway added to the disbelief. As a result many radio and television stations were not confident enough to forecast too much snow to the southeatern United States public, until it was on more solid ground by surface reports.
As the storm system deepened, temperatures over much of the eastern United States began to fall quickly. The area of low pressure rapidly deepened as it moved into northwest Florida by early Saturday morning. As this happened snow began to spread over the eastern United States and a squall line moved over the Gulf of Mexico into Florida and Cuba. The low tracked up the United States eastern seaboard during the day on Saturday and into Canada by early Monday morning. The storm system caused blizzard conditions over much of the eastern seaboard. It brought thundersnow from Texas through Pennsylvania with some white out conditions.The system was responsible for 300 deaths and power outages to over 10 million customers. Most of the deaths were due to heart attacks from shoveling snow. The storm system directly affected over 130 million people. Every airport along the east coast was closed for some time during the storm. Every airport from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Atlanta, Georgia was closed for some time because of the storm. A record low pressure of 28.35 mb (960 mb) was recorded in New England. Such low readings were usually of a Category 2 or 3 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. Record low temperatures were recorded in much of the south.
With the assessment of this storm system, 26 states and an estimated 100 million had been affected. This had an impact on travel, hundreds of fatalities, and billions of dollars of damage and economic losses. As far as weather historical records, there has not been a winter storm system to match the effects of this system.
Maximum snowfall amounts (inches):
Mt. Le Counte, TN - 60
Mt. Mitchell, NC - 50
Snowshoe, WV - 44
Syracuse, NY - 43
Latrobe, PA - 36
Lincoln, NH - 35
Albany, NY - 27
Pittsburgh, P - 25
Hartford, CT - 24
London, KY - 22
Chattanooga, TN - 20
Ashville, NC - 19
Birmingham, AL - 17
Washington, DC - 13
New York, NY - 12
Waynesboro, MS - 9

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I cannot find any write up from ILN on it for local area impacts so if anyone finds anything please post.

Re: The March Super Storm of 1993

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 9:08 am
by cloudy72
Yeah I was in my final few months living in Huntington, WV when this storm hit. To this day, it is the most awesome snowstorm I have ever witnessed. Blizzard of 1996 was a close second. Huntington had a record 22" which stands today. Snowfall rates of 2-3" per hour at the height with thundersnow and 50+ mph gusts. It was truly amazing!

Re: The March Super Storm of 1993

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 9:20 am
by tron777
The JKL office, RLX, PIT, etc. were the hardest hit in the OV. Some of those offices may have some write up's.

Re: The March Super Storm of 1993

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 9:43 am
by Sawdoggie
I was a freshman out at OU in Athens when this hit. I believe we got something like 16-18" of snow which was the largest single snowfall that I had ever seen at the point. Awesome, although if I remember right, we still had classes on main campus or they were only cancelled for a day, I honestly can't remember. Even more fun was the January 1994 storm that dropped over 20" followed by sub zero temps. That one closed the university for a week. I remember us trekking to the store with sleds made out of cardboard to load up on beer for the week (we had priorities, right!). There was an empty dorm room in our mod that we figured out how to jimmy the lock to get in and with the window left open in it, we had a convenient walk in fridge. 1993 and 1994... the only time in my life I have seen two years with back to back incredible storms!

Re: The March Super Storm of 1993

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 9:47 am
by tron777
March of 93... October of 93 and Jan of 94 were all good to monster snow events in the OV. Definitely a good 2 year stretch!

Re: The March Super Storm of 1993

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 11:47 am
by cloudy72
That storm also had a rather potent tornado outbreak across Florida killing five, and set all-time low barometric pressure readings all up and down the east coast if I recall.

Re: The March Super Storm of 1993

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:04 pm
by tron777
cloudy72 wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 11:47 am That storm also had a rather potent tornado outbreak across Florida killing five, and set all-time low barometric pressure readings all up and down the east coast if I recall.
Yes sir! That was one nasty squall line that produced 15 tornadoes in the wee hours of the morning.

Re: The March Super Storm of 1993

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:15 pm
by House of Cards
I have terrible memories of this one; I was working for a plumbing supply company at the time. Had a Saturday morning sales meeting I had to attend; was coming back home along Galbraith Rd and hit a skiddy patch, my then brand new Ford Ranger pickup truck fishtailed a little, but I got it collected. That night, a buddy of mine's family had a dinner dance benefit over at LakeRidge Hall behind Lake Nina. I had asked a girl from work to go as my date; I kind of liked her, but we weren't dating. She lived down in Elmwood place, so I had to drive down and pick her up there, headed up to the dance. While at the dance, another guy in my friend group spent the entire night making the moves on my date, to the point where I hardly saw her. So I drowned my sorrows in a few pitchers of Hudey's finest. As the dance was winding down (and it was snowing outside), she comes over and says she's ready for me to drive her home now. I said "why not get J to drive you home since you spent all night with him?" and she tells me he already left. So being the better man, I drove her home. While down there, I picked up a sack of White Castles to eat when I made it home. I wasn't drunk, but by that point i would've blown over the limit. So I'm coming home up Banning Rd to where Pippin ran in. This was right near the old Providence Hospital for you oldster natives. The road goes uphill to a three way stop. To the left Banning continues past a funeral home to Colerain Ave. Straight ahead/right is Pippin Rd, basically right back where i started by Lake Nina. As I'm going up the snow covered road, I can toally feel my truck getting slippy, and I know if I stop at that Stop sign, I'm never getting restarted. I'm only going about 5-10mph anyway. I look as I get closer to the intersection, the ONLY set of headlights besides mine are a good 150-200yds down Banning coming from Colerain. So I slowly roll thru the intersection, only having about a 1/4mi to turning left on my street. Just as I turn, the lights go on behind me. I guess I'm lucky, he didn't have me blow or anything. But I was so pissed when he tells me he's writing me for running the stop sign, telling me what a dangerous intersection that is. Bear in mind this is almost 3am when this happens. Even when there is no bad weather, that intersection is not unsafe at 3am. So I take my ticket which I was seething about, go home, and park my truck across from the house. At least, I console myself, the Atlanta 500 is on tomorrow, and I'm going to get to watch some NASCAR. So I wake up and head downstairs next morning, flip on the TV, and see that due to the snow, the race is postponed. Meanwhile, my mom had a work conference she needed to travel out of state for, and since the airlines cancelled her flight, my dad says he'll drive her there and stay and bring her back. Dad drove a big Chevrolet Conversion Van. He had parked in the driveway the day before in anticipation of he and mom going. It was a really great van, but had one minor flaw, it had kind of a blindspot behind it. So dear old dad backs out of the driveway and POW!!!! he t-bones my truck, hits it so hard it gets moved up into the grass strip between the street and sidewalk. My poor dad. I'm afraid I wasn't as understanding as I could have been either, that truck was about two months old and was my baby. He felt terrible, I could totally see that once I got a grip on my own emotions. Anyway, at least both vehicles were drive-able, so Dad and Mom went on to her work thing, and we got the truck in the body shop that week. I ordinarily love snow, but that was one time I have very little fond memories of whatsoever.

Re: The March Super Storm of 1993

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:36 pm
by tron777
Wow Dave... what a story! :burnrubber:

Re: The March Super Storm of 1993

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 5:52 pm
by MVWxObserver
Wow Dave!! What an account, Bro! :swerve:

I have an aunt, Mom's younger sister, who is a retired RN and she worked at Providence Hospital for a while during the early 1970s.

Re: The March Super Storm of 1993

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 6:01 pm
by MVWxObserver
I was residing with my folks and sister in Roanoke Rapids, NC (near the VA border) west of I-95 during the '93 Super Storm and we didn't really get any noteworthy effects at all from that particular event.

I have a cousin who grew up here in Greenville and she was on Spring break with some friends in FL at the time of the Super Storm.

She now lives in VA Beach with her husband and daughter.

My folks and I were pretty much "glued" to The Weather Channel coverage during that storm and I remember the muffled audio feedback from that event.