Blizzard of 1978

February 6-7, 1978. Sustained snowfall for 33 hours over the Northeast with a rate of 4 inches per hour at times. Hurricane force winds of 86 mph with gusts to 111 mph. (Photo by Dahoov2, Wikimedia Commons.)

Snowmaggedon

February 5-6, 2010. Record and near-record snowfalls between 20 and 40 inches over the Mid-Atlantic states. Three days later, another 12 to 24 inches fell on the same area. Forty-one lives were lost, and the area suffered $2.4 billion in property damage. (Photo by Wunderphotographer Chills.)

Storm of the Century

March 12-13, 1993. From Florida to Maine, record-breaking snowfalls and snow depths in many locations with tornadoes, thunderstorms, and floods in others. Forty percent of the U.S. population was affected. Anticipated five days in advance, the storm set a new National Weather Service standard in forecasting. (Satellite image, NOAA.)

The day it snowed in Miami

January 19, 1977. The only South Florida snowfall of the 20th century, with flakes falling from Miami to West Palm Beach. (©UCAR, photo by Greg Thompson)

Blizzard of 1949

Nearly 250,000 people and 4 million head of sheep and cattle were trapped by enormous snows in Nebraska and surrounding states during the winter of 1948-1949. In an effort dubbed Operation Haylift, U.S. Air Force and Nebraska National Guard planes dropped feed to stranded livestock. (Historic photo of Nebraska National Guard C-45.)

Buried

63 inches of snow, the biggest one-day snow total on record, fell on Georgetown, Colorado, December 4, 1913. (Photo Denver Public Library.)

California freezin’

A series of freezes in the central and southern San Joaquin Valley, California December 20-30, 1990, cost approximately $5.6 billion in 2010 dollars. This was the most expensive freeze event in U.S. history. Many crops were lost and mature citrus groves killed, eliminating production for several years.

A world record

95 feet of snow, the heaviest annual snowfall ever measured in the U.S. and the world. Mt. Baker, Washington. July 1, 1998 to Jun 30, 1999. (Photo by Ken McGee, Wikimedia Commons.)

Not-so-nice ice

8 inches, the thickest recorded ice accumulation from a single storm in the U.S. Northern Idaho, January 1-3, 1961

Brrr!

A temperature of -69.7° F at Rogers Pass, Montana on January 20, 1954 was the coldest ever recorded in the contiguous U.S.