The great blizzard lives on to this day as the greatest of them all. It began on March 11th as a torrential rainstorm. On the 12th much colder air moved in and the snows began. While Long Island still had rain, in New Jersey, temperatures fell into the single numbers. The observatory at Central Park in NYC had a low of 6 degrees with an average of 9 during the day. A total of 21 inches of snow fell in New York but the fierce winds piled up snowdrifts 10 to 20 feet deep. On one side of a street there could be bare ground while on the other there were huge drifts of snow. The east river froze over completely.Travel was impossible.
In New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts in places 40 to 50 inches of snow fell. Drifts reached 40 to 50 feet. and railroads were shut down. Winds of 40 mph and more were common. The storm was known as the white hurricane.
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