Great Blizzard of 1888

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Template:Infobox weather eventTemplate:Infobox weather event/BlizzardTemplate:Infobox weather event/EffectsTemplate:Infobox weather event/Footer The Great Blizzard of 1888, also known as the Great Blizzard of '88 or the Great White Hurricane (March 11–14, 1888), was one of the most severe recorded blizzards in American history. The storm paralyzed the East Coast from Chesapeake Bay to Maine,<ref name=Christiano>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name= noaa/> as well as the Atlantic provinces of Canada.<ref name=douglas /> Snow from Template:Convert fell in parts of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and sustained winds of more than Template:Convert produced snowdrifts in excess of Template:Convert. Railroads were shut down and people were confined to their homes for up to a week.<ref name=douglas>Template:Cite book</ref> Railway and telegraph lines were disabled, and this provided the impetus to move these pieces of infrastructure underground. Emergency services were also affected during this blizzard.

Storm details

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Streets in New York City as the storm hit. Many overhead wires broke and presented a hazard to city dwellers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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Brooklyn Bridge during the blizzard

The weather was unseasonably mild just before the blizzard, with heavy rains that turned to snow as temperatures dropped rapidly.<ref name=douglas /> On March 12, New York City dropped from Template:Convert to Template:Convert, and rain changed to snow at 1 A.M.<ref name=wunderground>Template:Cite web</ref> The storm began in earnest shortly after midnight on March 12 and continued unabated for a full day and a half. In a 2007 article, the National Weather Service estimated that this nor'easter dumped as much as Template:Convert of snow in parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts, while parts of New Jersey and New York had up to Template:Convert.<ref name= noaa>Template:Cite web</ref> Most of northern Vermont received from Template:Convert to Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Drifts averaged Template:Convert, over the tops of houses from New York to New England, with reports of drifts covering three-story houses. The highest drift was recorded in Gravesend, Brooklyn at Template:Convert. Template:Convert of snow fell in Saratoga Springs, New York; Template:Convert in Albany, New York; Template:Convert in New Haven, Connecticut; and Template:Convert in New York City.<ref name=NCDC>Template:Cite web</ref> The storm also produced severe winds; Template:Convert wind gusts were reported, although the highest official report in New York City was Template:Convert, with a Template:Convert gust reported at Block Island.<ref name=NCDC/> On March 13, New York City recorded a low of Template:Convert, the coldest so late in the season, with the high rising to only Template:Convert.<ref name=wunderground/>

Impacts

In New York, neither rail nor road transport was possible anywhere for days,<ref name=Christiano/> and drifts across the New York–New Haven rail line at Westport, Connecticut, took eight days to clear. Transportation gridlock as a result of the storm was partially responsible for the creation of the first underground subway system in the United States, which opened nine years later in Boston, as well as the opening of New York's first underground subway line in 1904, later expanding into the New York City Subway.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The New York Stock Exchange was closed for two days.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A full two day weather-related closure would not occur again until Hurricane Sandy in 2012.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Similarly, telegraph infrastructure was disabled, isolating Montreal and most of the large northeastern U.S. cities from Washington, D.C. to Boston for days. Following the storm, New York began placing its telegraph and telephone infrastructure underground to prevent their destruction.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Fire stations were immobilized, and property loss from fire alone was estimated at $25 million (equivalent to $Template:Inflation million in Template:Inflation/year).<ref name=Christiano/>

From the Chesapeake Bay through the New England area, more than 200 ships were either grounded or wrecked, resulting in the deaths of at least 100 seamen.<ref name=NCDC/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Efforts were made to push the snow into the Atlantic Ocean. Severe flooding occurred after the storm due to melting snow, especially in the Brooklyn area, which was susceptible to flooding because of its topography.<ref name=NCDC/>

Not all areas were notably affected by the Blizzard of 1888; an article in the Cambridge Press published five days after the storm noted that the "fall of snow in this vicinity was comparatively small, and had it not been accompanied by a strong wind it would have been regarded as rather trifling in amount, the total depth, on a level, not exceeding ten inches".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Roscoe Conkling, an influential Republican politician, died as a result of the storm after attempting to walk home during the blizzard.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On October 1, 1888, an article appeared in the first issue of the National Geographic Society magazine about the great blizzard. It was written by Edward Everett Hayden and described the blizzard and the courageous and successful struggle, told by boat-keeper Robert Robinson, of the crew from the pilot-boat Charles H. Marshall, No. 3.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

References

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Further reading

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