On Today's Date: The Megalopolitan Snowstorm Of 1983 Snarled Northeast, Including New York, Boston
The first two weeks of February have seen the most numerous major Northeast winter storms, historically.
On Feb. 11, 1983, 42 years ago today, one of the most memorable such storms in modern times hammered the entire Northeast urban corridor.
The so-called Megalopolitan snowstorm dumped 10 to 30 inches of snow from the Appalachians to New Hampshire. Snow fell as fast as 2 to 5 inches in an hour, accompanied by lightning from New York City to Washington, D.C.
All-time calendar day snowfall records were smashed in Allentown (24 inches), Harrisburg (24 inches) and Philadelphia (21.1 inches), which were all toppled by subsequent storms. The areal coverage and population affected earned the Megalopolitan snowstorm a Category 4 rating on the NESIS scale, one of only 13 snowstorms to earn that high a rating.
Washington's Dulles and National airports, as well as Baltimore, Philadelphia, and all three New York City airports shut down. Vehicles were abandoned on snow-choked roads on Long Island. Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania's Poconos "closed itself".
There were 46 deaths attributed to the storm, 33 of which occurred on a ship that sank off the coast of Virginia.
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
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