Snowstorms

The snowstorm of December 13 to 18, 1930

December 13 to 18, 1930 · Category 4, Crippling in the Southeast

A snowstorm NOAA ranked in 5 regions on its Regional Snowfall Index, strongest in the Southeast.

The storm by region

Each region’s thresholds are its own, so the same depth of snow counts for more in the South than in the Northeast.

RegionIndexCategoryArea with snow (sq mi)People under snowAbove the top threshold (sq mi)People above it
Southeast13.97Category 4, Crippling166,96431,706,59010,2442,048,100
South0.94Below category 1206,0479,716,93800
Ohio Valley0.47Below category 1197,55226,923,21900
Northern Rockies and Plains0.15Below category 1145,4951,913,79100
Northeast0.01Below category 138,91014,441,22400

The Regional Snowfall Index is NOAA’s ranking of snowstorms east of the Rockies by how much snow fell, over how wide an area and on how many people, region by region: the area and the population above four snowfall thresholds set for each region, weighted against that region’s own history. A storm is scored in each region it reached, on a scale from 1, notable, to 5, extreme.

In the Storm Events record

The Storm Events Database holds winter weather only from 1996, so this storm has no episodes there.

More

The snowstorm of November 17 to 21, 1930The snowstorm of March 4 to 12, 1931Snow nowEvery winter storm filed

Sources

NOAA NCEI Regional Snowfall Index, and the Storm Events Database for the episodes.