The Great White Hurricane: When Providence Showed Off

This weekend’s bitter cold reminded me of a three-day storm long in the past that makes our modern Nor’easters look positively quaint. On March 11-14, 1888, the “Great White Hurricane” buried the Northeast under 50 inches of snow coupled with 85 mph winds. According to contemporary account in the New York Evening Sun, “It came in whirls, it descended in layers, it shot along in great blocks, it rose and fell and corkscrewed and zigzagged and played merry havoc with everything it could swing or batter or bang or carry away.”

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