Snowstorms

The Post Christmas Storm of 2010

December 24 to 28, 2010 · Category 2, Significant in the Southeast

This storm brought snow from the northern plains down through the south and then up through the Northeast. It was a Cat 3 for the Southeast Region and a Cat 2 for the Northeast Region. The storm brought heavy snow from the mountains of North Carolina through the I-95 corridor. The storm caused six states to declare States of Emergency. The snow accompanied by severe winds caused wide spread power outages in New England and caused a ski lift to collapse in Maine. Eastern New Jersey and New York City took the brunt of the storm where over 20 inches fell in many locations. The snow became such a problem for New York City that the roads were impassable for many days bringing the trash collection service to a grinding halt. It would take weeks after the storm for New York City's waste management team to finally restore normal trash collection.

What the offices filed during it

Winter weather episodes east of the Rockies from the day before the storm began to the day after it ended, colored by kind.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

Open the live map with snow on the ground

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
Southeast5.33Category 2, Significant190,49933,657,57531720,885
Northeast3.24Category 2, Significant174,95058,912,65500
Ohio Valley1.74Category 1, Notable308,95249,253,47300
Upper Midwest1.15Category 1, Notable201,74221,935,52500
Northern Rockies and Plains0.24Below category 1205,5383,018,35600
South0.00Below category 171,1714,372,16800

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.

The toll the offices filed

Events
1,015
Deaths
12
Injuries
48
Damage
$2.1 million
Episodes
111

Every winter weather episode the Weather Service filed east of the Rockies in these dates. A few may belong to another system on the same days. Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

Episode by episode

More

The snowstorm of December 11 to 14, 2010The snowstorm of December 29, 2010 to January 2, 2011Snow nowEvery winter storm filed

Sources

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