Snowstorms

The snowstorm of February 27 to March 4, 1947

February 27 to March 4, 1947 · Category 4, Crippling in the Northeast

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

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
Northeast10.63Category 4, Crippling174,83458,911,4663,680276,146
Ohio Valley2.62Category 1, Notable308,95149,252,7922499,524
South1.29Category 1, Notable221,54810,218,76000
Southeast0.97Below category 1147,33128,969,365763,832
Upper Midwest0.31Below category 1152,93317,826,30000
Northern Rockies and Plains0.22Below category 1223,3453,014,18600

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 February 20 to 24, 1947The Blizzard of 1947 \The Big Snow\Snow nowEvery winter storm filed

Sources

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