The biggest blizzard in U.S. history saw nearly 5 feet of snow.

Science & Industry

R ecords are meant to be broken, but at least one weather-related event is unlikely to be bested anytime soon: the biggest snowstorm in American history, which dumped nearly 5 feet of snow on the Northeastern U.S. The aptly named Great Blizzard of 1888, also known as the Great White Hurricane, occurred in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut between March 11 and 14, and saw as much as 58 inches (4.8 feet) of snowfall. That was in Saratoga Springs, New York, while Bennington, Vermont, reported 48 inches and Middletown, Connecticut, received 50 inches.

By midnight on March 12, winds reached speeds of 50 miles per hour. Snowdrifts as high as 40 feet accumulated in the small town of Bangall, New York. Railways and telegraph lines shut down — inspiring the creation of the first underground subway system — and people were stuck indoors for as long as a week. By the time it was over, at least 400 people had lost their lives and $25 million in damages (roughly $850 million today) had been caused. Among the victims was Roscoe Conkling, a powerful senator who represented New York from 1867 to 1881. He contracted pneumonia after attempting to walk 3 miles in New York City on March 12.

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By the Numbers

Year the New York City subway opened

1904

Feet of snow recorded in Silver Lake, Colorado, on April 15, 1921

6.3

Did you know?

Antarctica is the world's largest desert.

Though we think of deserts as hot and sandy, the technical definition is simply a place with very little precipitation. That's why the mighty Sahara, which reaches temperatures of 122 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and covers an area of 3.6 million square miles, isn't the largest desert on Earth. That superlative belongs to Antarctica, which is 5.5 million square miles and nearly the opposite of what springs to mind when thinking of deserts: It is very, very cold. Temperatures as low as -128.2 degrees Fahrenheit have been recorded there, and the ice is an average of 1.5 miles thick. But it isn't snowy, and receives only about 2 inches of precipitation per year. That makes it one of the driest places on Earth, and certainly one of the most inhospitable — it has very little vegetation and is the only continent with no permanent human settlements.