Few winter storms are as legendary as the American Blizzard of 88, dumping 55 inches (140 cm) of snow in the northeast U.S. It was the snowiest, coldest and deadliest, winter storm in American history. From March 11-13, 1888, over 400 souls perished, including 200 in New York City alone. Many people were literally buried in snow drifts or stranded on elevated trains.
The temperature in New York fell to 6°F (-14°C)—the coldest ever measured so late in the season. It was the day people from Washington, D.C., to Boston, MA experienced the Great White Hurricane. One of the most interested facts is the way people coped with a Storm of the Century disaster, at a time when there were no accurate storm warnings or even snow plows.
January 1888 saw the most intense U.S. cold wave on record. It spread east during the third week of the month, bringing all-time records to the upper midwest: -24 F° at Lakeview, Oregon on January 15th; -42 F° at Missoula, Montana on January 16th; -41F° at Minneapolis, Minnesota on January. 21st. -36 F° at Green Bay, Wisconsin on January 21st.
But then as the country neared springtime, the weather turned unseasonably warm. Americans assumed that winter was all but over. Then, the Blizzard of 1888 struck. On the day before, March 10, 1888, most people in the northeast experienced mild, rainy conditions. Temperatures hovered in the mid-50s F. Without the weather tracking technology that exists today, there was no sign that things were about to drastically change for the worse. On Saturday, March 10, 1888, the U.S. Signal Service, precursor of the National Weather Service, was predicting the storm would dissipate and/or head out to sea. Instead, it collided with a cold front from Canada to create the Storm of the Century.
The Blizzard of 88 began on March 11, 1888 and caught the East Coast entirely off-guard. Arctic air from Canada dove south and collided with warmer air from the Gulf. This caused temperatures to plunge, and the heavy rain that had been falling in New York City turned to snow at 1 AM on Monday, March 12th. Blizzard conditions quickly developed as the wind rose to a sustained 50 mph, reaching hurricane-strength. By midnight, gusts were recorded at 85 mph in the streets of New York City.
There was a virtual whiteout when shocked residents awoke the next morning.
The storm center then became stationary over the U.S. northeast and made a counterclockwise loop off the coast, while maintaining its intensity. By 8 o’clock AM Monday, the city was completely immobilized by the blinding, drifting snow and howling winds. All telegraph communications went down.
Despite wind-blown drifts that reached second stories in some cases, many New Yorkers actually bundled up and trudged out to go to work. They only to found the elevated trains blocked by snow drifts. There was no subway yet at the time, and the elevated railroad had ground to a halt. Up to 15,000 people were stranded on the elevated trains. In some areas, people with ladders rescued the passengers … for a small fee. One train derailed due to drifts and killed several passengers and crew as it crashed to the streets below.
Walking in the streets of any town in the northeast became not only impossible, but deadly. Of the 200 people who perished in New York City, most were found frozen to death, buried in snowdrifts along the city’s sidewalks. One of these victims was Senator Roscoe Conkling, a New York Republican. He died as a result of “over exposure” from trying to walk from his Wall Street office to the New York Club on Madison Square.
Only 30 people out of 1,000 were able to make it to the New York Stock Exchange. Wall Street was forced to close for three days. At the time, telegraph lines, water mains and gas lines were also above ground. The powerful blizzard knocked them out of commission and they were inaccessible to repair crews. People found themselves suddenly trapped without heat and running water. Fire stations were also immobilized, and property loss from inextinguishable fires was estimated at $25 million.
The legendary William Steinway, president of the famous piano firm Steinway & Son, provided a firsthand account of the storm in his diary. Steinway discovered “the most fearful snowstorm I ever experienced” in New York City. His carriage had become stuck three times and he was forced to wade through knee-deep snow in Gramercy Park, having “a terrible time getting to my house by 6 pm.“
Steinway’s diary entry for March 13th wrote, “Snowing stopped but intense cold remains, nearly freezing me to death on the way.” He kept his appointments until late at night, getting around the city on a horse-drawn sleigh, returning at 11:30 PM, March 14th: “Our horses starving for want of food, sent my son George out to buy oats, learned that the roof of our piano factory was nearly blown off.“
The New York Times reported that East and Hudson rivers were frozen over.
If you couldn’t get over a mountain of snow, some attempted to tunnel under it. Men dug caves in the biggest snow banks and used barrels to build wooden fires in an effort to melt the snow. City officials sent thousands of volunteers out to free trains blocked for days and rescue stranded commuters. Passenger cars had wood stoves to keep customers from freezing to death. But as wood ran out, desperate conductors chopped up the seats for use as fuel.
The East River, between Manhattan and Queens, froze over, an extremely rare event. Some brave commuters attempted to cross the river on foot. This proved a terrible mistake. When the tides changed, the ice broke up, stranding them on drifting ice floes. During the Blizzard of 88, many stranded New Yorkers camped out in hotel lobbies. American author and humorist Mark Twain was in New York and was stranded at his hotel for several days.
Refugees filled all the New York City hotels. The famous Astor Hotel on 5th Avenue set up 100 cots in its lobby when it became apparent by 7 PM that day first day, venturing outside was simply impossible. The temperature had fallen to 8° F (-13 C) by sunset, the wind was still howling and snowdrifts up to 20 feet (6 m) filled the streets of the city.
The Barnum & Bailey Circus kept its promise to go ahead with its two performances at Madison Square Garden. The Times reported on March 13, “In the very teeth of the gale the matinee was given, and last evening the second performance occurred according to programme.” Few seats were occupied, but P.T. Barnum attended the first show. Barnum commented that the storm might be a great show, but he still had the greatest show on earth.
And it wasn’t just New York City that suffered the Blizzard of 88.
The storm was even more severe outside of New York City. It dumped more than four feet of snow in Albany and Saratoga Springs, New York, and Bennington, Vermont. Mrs. M. Brusselars was trapped in her Hartford, Connecticut, house for three days with a dozen neighborhood refugees. “Food ran out after two day, but we found that under my back porch about 75 sparrows had gathered, so we killed some of them, made a few sparrow pies, which helped to sustain us.”
William Scribner, of Cannonade, Connecticut, a wire weaver trudged a mile in thigh deep snow from his house. As he staggered to his company’s main gate, he heard the whistle signaling the start of his shift. When he was just a few steps from the entrance, the stoic guard locked the gate in front of him. Despite the blizzard, management considered him just another late employee and docked him a day’s pay.
On a mild week before the storm, New York City department store buyer John Meisinger was berated by his boss because he purchased snow shovels to sell at the end of the winter season. What foolishness! Management later congratulated when the storm hit. His purchase made the store a $1,800 profit in snow shovel sales to desperate New Yorkers.
There were amazing rescues as well. Edward Leonard, of Springfield, Massachusetts, reached down to pick up his hat, blown off on top of a mound of snow, and found the pale face of an unconscious young girl. As the Times reported, “Using only his bare hands, Leonard managed to dig the girl out and carry her to a nearby shelter alive, where she was resuscitated.“
Fifty trains became stranded on their tracks in the Blizzard of 88.
They ran between New York City and various points including Albany, Long Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Many were derailed after trying to plow through drifts measured up to 38 feet (12 m). Wind swept drifts up to 40 feet were reported in Poughkeepsie, NY. Many of the 200 fatalities outside of New York City consisted of passengers and train crews that froze to death while attempting to walk to nearby towns after their trains became stuck.
Several ships foundered at sea, lost to 90-mph winds, huge seas, and heavy ice on decks that caused them to tip and roll over. Along the Atlantic coast, high winds and heavy waves sunk hundreds of boats. In addition, thousands of wild and farm animals froze to death in their barns and pastures. So many telephone and telegraph wires were down that New York City was unable to communicate with the rest of the world. In Boston, the Daily Globe’s March 13th headline was: “Cut Off!”
The snowfall totals north of New York City were massive and historic – 58” at Saratoga Springs, NY. Albany, NY recorded 47”. New York City’s official accumulation was up to 36” in parts of Brooklyn and Queens. New Haven, Connecticut reported 42”. Elsewhere were 48” at Bennington, Vermont, 40” at North Adams, MA, 31” at Blooming Grove, PA, and 25” at Rahway, NJ. After the storm, there was the issue of what to do with all that snow. Efforts were made in coastal cities to push the snow into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Blizzard of 88 was the first widely photographed disaster in U.S. history. It shocked both the nation and the world. It lead New York City to plan its vast subway system, now one of the most extensive in the world. The breakdown of all communications from Washington, D.C., northward resulted in the burying of telegraph, gas and later, electric lines across many parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions (although overhead power lines can still be found in rural areas).
The devastating storm reshaped how major U.S. cities planned for and managed weather-related emergencies. It influenced the evolution of weather forecasting, utilities infrastructure, public safety measures, and mass communications. In the wake of the Great White Hurricane, officials realized the dangers of above-ground transportation. In New York City, a determination was made about the elevated train system. By 1900, construction began on the extensive underground subway system still in use today.
Today, with unchecked global climate change plaguing the world, we can expect more frequent storms during all seasons of the intensity of the famous Blizzard of 88.
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