Snowstorms

The snowstorm of December 23 to 27, 1909

December 23 to 27, 1909 · Category 2, Significant in the Ohio Valley

A snowstorm NOAA ranked in 6 regions on its Regional Snowfall Index, strongest in the Ohio Valley.

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
Ohio Valley5.23Category 2, Significant300,60047,884,74000
Northeast4.39Category 2, Significant173,25858,894,7726744,358
Upper Midwest2.16Category 1, Notable203,94323,029,87000
Southeast1.57Category 1, Notable102,85520,246,99000
Northern Rockies and Plains0.59Below category 192,5632,257,82300
South0.54Below category 196,1863,950,52100

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 December 16 to 20, 1909The snowstorm of January 12 to 15, 1910Snow nowEvery winter storm filed

Sources

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