The Great Blizzard of 1899 was an unprecedented winter weather event that affected the southern United States. What made it historic was both the severity of winter weather and the extent of the U.S. it affected, especially in the South.
Arctic cold
The event started out on February 11 as a severe cold wave in which every part of the East Coast from Georgia to Maine received sub-zero Fahrenheit temperatures. The following state record low temperatures for February were achieved:
- Tallahassee, Florida: −2 °F (−19 °C) (only recorded instance of a sub-zero Fahrenheit temperature in Florida)
- Diamond, Georgia: −12 °F (−24 °C)
- Sandy Hook, Kentucky: −33 °F (−36 °C)
- Minden, Louisiana: −16 °F (−27 °C)
- Fort Logan, Montana: −61 °F (−51 °C)
- Camp Clark, Nebraska: −47 °F (−44 °C)
- Milligan, Ohio: −39 °F (−39 °C)
- Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania: −39 °F (−39 °C)
- Santuc, South Carolina: −11 °F (−24 °C)
- Erasmus, Tennessee: −30 °F (−34 °C)
- Austin, Texas: -1 °F (-18 °C)
- San Antonio, Texas: 4 °F (-15°C)
- Monterey, Virginia: −29 °F (−34 °C) (all time state low until 1985)
- Dayton, West Virginia: −35 °F (−37 °C)
- Washington, D.C.: −15 °F (−26 °C) (still the all time low temperature within the District of Columbia)
Winter weather
The port of New Orleans, Louisiana was completely iced over by February 13.
On February 14, the low temperature in Miami, Florida was 29 °F (−2 °C), the second coldest (and the first sub-freezing) temperature that the city has ever recorded.
On February 12, snow started falling from Fort Myers and Tampa in Florida west towards New Orleans. Blizzard conditions were reported north of Tampa along the west coast of Florida. The storm crossed the Florida peninsula and intensified as it rapidly moved up the Eastern United States. High Point, NC recorded 10-12" (25-30 cm) of snow, and temperatures as low as 10 degrees (−12 °C) on the 11th, 5 degrees (−15 °C) on the 13th, and 3 degrees (−16 °C) on the 14th. It was said to be the coldest weather known to the oldest inhabitants. Washington, D.C. recorded its all-time record single snowfall of 20.5 inches (52 cm), though it was later broken. Cape May, New Jersey recorded 34 inches (86 cm), which is the highest single storm snowfall total ever in New Jersey, in what is normally the least snowy part of the state.
North of the Mid-Atlantic region, the storm weakened somewhat, but it was still a very powerful blizzard. New York City's Central Park recorded 16 inches (41 cm), which at the time was its 3rd biggest snowfall, but many surrounding areas recorded 2-3 feet (60 to 90 cm), as did most of New England.
There are even Cuban reports that the country experienced hard frost which killed or damaged many crops. The blizzard of 1899 is referred to as "The Snow King."
References
- Kocin, Paul J.; Weiss, Alan D.; Wagner, Joseph J. (1988), "The Great Arctic Outbreak and East Coast Blizzard of February 1899", Weather and Forecasting 3 (4): 305–318, doi:
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