Snowstorms

The snowstorm of January 23 to 25, 1948

January 23 to 25, 1948 · Category 2, Significant 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
Southeast3.61Category 2, Significant174,24832,051,46200
Northeast2.66Category 1, Notable171,26958,873,78000
Ohio Valley2.24Category 1, Notable205,22140,081,08600
South1.14Category 1, Notable128,02414,141,07800
Upper Midwest0.01Below category 154,57513,242,12500

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 Blizzard of 1947 \The Big Snow\The snowstorm of January 25 to 28, 1948Snow nowEvery winter storm filed

Sources

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