87storms

Tale of the Tape, Blizzard 1996 vs 2/5/10, 

 

Location 

 

1996 - Silver Spring at DC Line - 300', 

2010 - Mt. Pleasant DC (4 miles due south of 1996 location) - 200'

 

Totals

 

1996 - 21"

2010 - 22"

 

Temperature at onset/min temp during storm

 

1996 - 20/15

2010 - 34/24

 

Duration

 

1996 - 36 hours

2010 - 30 hours

 

Max Sustained/Gust

 

1996 - 29/37

2010 - 25/35

 

Sleet?

 

1996 - Yes

2010 - No

 

Minimum Viz

 

1996 - 0.1 mi

2010 - 0.1 mi

 

For me, I give 1996 a slight edge.  Much colder storm.  Stuck to Beltway immediately (I was on it at 11pm).  Drier snow.  More Drifting. And in terms of intangibles, the 3-4" I got the next day made digging out futile.  

yea i was driving around 11pm as well when the 96 blizzard first started.  it was steady and sticking everywhere in silver spring.

Oops. Wrong ice storm. The poll had the sleet fest of February not the January one I was remebering.

94 was silly cold.  i remember the 4-6" of pure sleet.  for about 2 minutes it changed to heavy snow toward the beginning in the street lights and then i turned away, came back minutes later and it was back to sleet and pretty much stayed that way.  biggest sleet storm i'd seen though i was in ny in '07 and remember a pretty good one there, but it wasn't like the one in '94.

the freezing rain event that season was crazy.  i remember there was definitely about an inch of ice.  one of the few true ice storms i can recall here.

I can't choose between 1/96 and 2/5-6/10. I experienced both in the same house in Potomac, MD. 

1/96: more road accumulation-- there was no way to drive out of the neighborhood until the plows came, whereas in 2/10, we were able to use the tire tracks from early in the storm to form a driving trail two days after the storm before the plows came; colder; higher drifts 

2/10: more snow (26.5" vs. 24"); higher overall impact because we lost power for 30 hours (and unlike after Isabel, we couldn't drive to some place with power during the outage); higher snowfall rates 

 

The winds were equal in both (gusts to around 40 mph during the fiercest part). 

good point regarding road accumulation.  i felt like with 96 and 03 it was a legit snowed in situation.  instant accumulation on all surfaces during both storms.  i gotta give the edge to those over 10 even with the sleet because of just how cold those first two were.  doesn't diminish feb '10, which was still a great storm here.  

Or maybe getting 2-3 HECS that year means we wait twice as long as usual for the next one 

the next 3 years after that were comical.

Terrible storm if you dont like 24+ hours of continuous snowfall with 20"+ totals.

sure its a lousy winter

By april I will have had 2.5 inches of snow on the winter, worst ever since I was born

Still have feb. We can score this month. Not saying we will but it's too early to throw in the towel. Maybe we are corrales in round 10. Down but not out.

This winter sucks, which is no doubt the reason why this thread was started.

Lol we need more storms to track though I guess there's something to be said about how this area gets few HECS but they do happen from time to time.

Of all the storms feb 87 May have been my favorite or up there as a sleeper top 5 pick. Those rates in that short period of time were ridiculous. I was too young to remember the others before it but I do vaguely remember seeing a ton of snow on our patio at the end of 83.

96. It was a better snow producer here than 93 and impacted more area than 03 and 10.

4 years ago.  that's a long time, and seems like yesterday because aside from the storm right after that one, we've had a lot of nothing since.

Agree on your three biggest. 96, 03, 93, 79 and 10 are the best in that order for me. 96 and 03 both dropped 3 feet in my area.

i was too young for 79 and 83...so i'd probably go 03 (lived in upper moco), 96, 93, 10, 09, the 87 storms, 00...and that might round it out.  lived in lower moco for the rest of the storms which is probably why 03 was tops for me...felt like there was at least 2 feet of powder with that one.

Was a great storm. But it was not even in my top 5 of all time. It was the start of the most incredible winter ever for the Mid Atlantic though. The February bombs blew this storm away.

dec 09 and feb 10 were bigtime, but i still think 96 and 03 were the cream of the crop here and of course 93 was the godfather of east coast storms.  personal opinion.

I think what made this storm so memorable and intense for me is that one of my best friends was getting married that day. I had to load him and a pile of stuff into my suburban and drive from rockville to columbia @ 2pm. It took 2 hours but was one of the most wild rides of my life. My truck plowed through the snow no problem but 495 and 95N were an obstacle course of stuck cars. Total free for all. One of the best beers I've ever had was at the hotel bar 2 seconds after I got there. Nerves were tweaking but I honestly enjoy driving in big snows. It's pretty fun. 

i just started leasing a jeep which will only fuel this hobby.  i had never really driven in snow until i got one of these...they really are made for this stuff.

what i remember about this storm was that the pattern from fall up to that point and most of that season was just a perfect combination of southern stream waves and blocking.  if the pattern stayed it was clear it was just a matter of time that once it got colder we wouldn't be getting nickel and dime'd like we are now.