Snowstorms

The snowstorm of January 30 to February 1, 1982

January 30 to February 1, 1982 · Category 2, Significant in the Ohio Valley

A snowstorm NOAA ranked in 4 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 Valley5.15Category 2, Significant210,89137,373,83920128,259
Upper Midwest1.86Category 1, Notable64,01213,958,20300
Northeast0.57Below category 1150,76134,425,16000
South0.47Below category 1246,92816,864,93000

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 January 20 to 24, 1982The snowstorm of April 4 to 8, 1982Snow nowEvery winter storm filed

Sources

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