A Blast From The Past: City Holds Snowy Record
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Accuweather has compiled snowfall records for the 25 largest cities in the U.S. and guess which city had the biggest single snowstorm in the last 125 years?
You might hear "biggest snowstorm" and think of Chicago, paralyzed by snowfall last week, or Denver or Minneapolis. But, the biggest single snowstorm in any big U.S. city dropped 30.7 inches of snow on ... our very own Philadelphia. That was in January of 1996, if you recall.
Alan Reppert, Accuweather climatologist, said the reason is our position in relation to the ocean.
Philadelphia is not so close to the Atlantic that snow mixes with sleet and freezing rain as in Boston and New York, but close enough.
"The ocean really helps to bring these storms a lot of moisture to bring that snowfall. Pittsburgh was number two with a 27-inch snowfall, then New York, Detroit, and Boston," Reppert said.
How about those cities that seem perpetually snowbound?
"A lot of their storms seem to be more in the way of 12-inches here, 12-inches there throughout the season rather than one big storm," Reppert said.
Mr. Reppert notes that Buffalo had a bigger snowfall but it is not considered to be a big city.
Reported by Pat Loeb, KYW Newsradio
