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Special News Feature special news feature Summary of the Blizzard of '88 Centennial Meeting Mark L. Kramer1 and Gary Solomon2 A full-day meeting celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Great provided access to the city by carriage, horsecar, and foot, Blizzard of '88 was held in New York City at William O'Shea closed during the blizzard for fear of structural failure. Ferry Junior High School on 12 March 1988. The meeting was or- service was also suspended during the blizzard. The elevated ganized by Mark L. Kramer of the New York City/Long Island railway system in Manhattan which transported people for 5 Chapter of the AMS (chairman), Gary Solomon of the North cents between the Battery and the South Bronx came to a stop Jersey Weather Observers (co-chairman), and David H. Tolleris during the storm. Horsecars (forerunner of trolley cars) also of the City College of New York Student Chapter of the AMS came to a halt as the snow piled up and horses froze to death. (co-chairman). In addition, the Atmospheric Sciences Section Carcasses of horses were found for several days after the storm. of the New York Academy of Sciences, the New Jersey Chapter The suburbs were linked to New York City by an extensive of the AMS, Meteorological Evaluation Services Co., Inc. steam railroad network, which became clogged with high drifts (MES), International Weather Corporation, and Consolidated during the storm. Miles of track were hand-shovelled free of Edison Company of New York, Inc. were co-sponsors. WNYW- snow because the steam engine plows were insufficient for the Fox Channel 5 in New York City provided pre-meeting pub- task. The New York Stock Exchange virtually shut down for licity and post-meeting coverage as part of their nightly news the first time; the next time trading was discontinued was a and weather reports. Nick Gregory, meteorologist of WNYW- result of the February 1978 snowstorm. Fox Channel 5, emceed the meeting. David Ludlum, meteorological historian, provided a review Participants received a reprint of the 1888 issue (vol. 1, no. of historical snowstorms, starting with the Great Snow of 1717 1) of The National Geographic Magazine, which included the in eastern New England, through the Great Snowstorm of Jan- article by A. W. Greely entitled "The Great Storm of March uary 15-16, 1831 that lashed the east coast from Georgia to 11-14, 1888" and the famous paper by Everett Hayden entitled Maine. Ludlum reviewed the Blizzard of '88 by quoting re- "The Great Storm Off the Atlantic Coast of the United States, marks The New York Times editor made on the day after the March 11th— 14th, 1888." In addition, proceedings were distrib- storm. The editor put the storm in historical perspective by uted. stating,4 'But there has never been a time within living memory, Posterboards of the original newspaper accounts of the Great and there is no authentic record since Manhattan was settled Blizzard of '88 were prepared by MES for New York, New by white men, when the ordinary business of life was com- Jersey, and Connecticut. Among the New York newspaper pletely brought to a standstill as it was yesterday.'' The Blizzard copies on exhibit were The New York Times, The Telegram, of '88 is still considered to be the worst storm in New York and The Evening Post of New York City. Long Island papers City history even though only 21 inches fell. The snowstorm displayed were The Patchogue Advance, The Sag Harbor Ex- of 26 December 1947 dumped 26.4 inches on the city, but did press, The Traveler (Southold), the Hempstead Inquirer, and not cause the severe havoc or loss of life associated with the The Long Islander (Huntington). Upstate New York papers Blizzard of '88. included the Albany Times, The Daily Eagle (Poughkeepsie), For comparison purposes, Robert B. Sykes, Jr. (retired from and the Newburgh Daily News. Copies of the original mete- the State University of New York at Oswego), presented slides orological records for March of 1888 were obtained from the and statistics of the Blizzard of '66, which dumped at least 102 National Climatic Data Center as well as the National Weather inches of snow on the Oswego area. Most New York City area Service Office at Rockefellar Plaza in New York City. Weather residents do not see this much snow in an entire winter, never records and comments by observers from the tri-state area were mind in one storm. also exhibited. Judd Caplovich, author of Blizzard! The Great Storm of '88 Gary Solomon set a perspective from which to gage the effect presented a slide show of the Blizzard of '88 based on pho- the blizzard had upon daily life. He described the New York tographs housed at historical societies and museums throughout City/Long Island and suburban areas as they existed in 1888, the northeast. He also reviewed the humorous signs people with special emphasis on the transportation systems, technol- made and identified famous landmarks of the era. ogy, and architecture. The Brooklyn Bridge (originally referred Mary Cable, author of The Blizzard of'88, related a number to as the East River Crossing), which opened in 1883 and of anecdotes about the storm of '88 that are portrayed in her narrative book. Both Cable's book and Caplovich's book were available for purchase and autographed by the authors. Paul J. Kocin of the Laboratory for Atmospheres at NASA's 1 Meteorological Evaluation Services Co., Inc., 165 Broadway, Am- Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and au- ityville, NY 11701. 2 th thor of the BULLETIN article of November 1983 entitled "An 201 West 70 St., Apt. 3D, New York, NY 10023. analysis of 'Blizzard of '88' " presented the results of his © 1988 American Meteorological Society surface and upper-air analyses of the March blizzard. The com- Bulletin American Meteorological Society 981 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/04/21 01:36 PM UTC MESOSCAIE METEOROLOGY AND FORECASTING Edited by PETERS.RAY This volume provides a comprehensive survey of the important topics in mesoscale meteorology. It is designed to supplement a practicing meteorologist's experience with new material and ideas on mesoscale processes, and to acquaint the student meteorologist with the broad range of topics embraced by the classification "mesoscale" meteorology. Illustrations, complete bibliographic references, and a comprehensive index are included. The text comprises contributions from 44 distinguished scientists in mesoscale meteorology. The 31 chapters are organized within these general headings: INTRODUCTION Kerry A. Emanuel T.T. Fujita Glen Rasch Joseph T. Schaefer Daniel Smith Fred L. Zuckerberg OBSERVING TECHNIQUES Donald Burgess Joseph Facundo Joseph H. Golden Vincent Lally Ronald D. McPherson James FW. Purdom Peter S. Ray Roderick A. Scofield Robert Serafin Dennis W. Thomson INTERNALLY GENERATED CIRCULATIONS Robert W. Burpee Howard B. Bluestein William H. Hooke Charles F. Chappell Douglas Lilly Daniel Keyser MESOSCALE CONVECTIVE SYSTEMS Diana L. Bartels Carl Hane Kenneth W. Howard Joseph B. Klemp Robert Maddox Dennis M. Rodgers Richard Rotunno Morris Weisman EXTERNALLY FORCED CIRCULATIONS Joe F. Boatman Dale R. Durran Roger A. Pielke Raymond T. Pierrehumbert Roger F. Reinking Joseph T Schaefer Moti Segal MESOSCALE MODELING Richard A. Anthes William R. Cotton John B. Hovermale Donald J. Perkey SHORT-RANGE FORECASTING TECHNIQUES Charles A. Doswell John McGinley Bruce B. Ross Thomas W. Schlatter As a textbook of mesoscale meteorology, the volume will provide to the operational and practicing meteorologist, as well as student meteorologists, the principal new observations and theories in this interdisciplinary topic. ...over 800 pp. List price $45* Send order and remittance to: AMS Member/NOAA Employee $30* AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY Course Participant/Student $20* 45 Beacon Street *(Plus $5.25 shipping & handling) Boston, MA 02108 142 Vol. 69, No. 8, August 1988 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/04/21 01:36 PM UTC Bulletin American Meteorological Society 983 bination of an intense, slow-moving cyclone and a stationary adequate and frequently misleading. Accurate assessments of frontal zone that separated moist, maritime air from bitterly the weight of the snow need to be made from a number of cold Canadian air resulted in a situation where heavy snowfall stations. Deployment of snow removal services in the aftermath exceeding 125 cm, high winds of 35-40 m/s, and cold tem- of major New York City storms, including the Lindsay storm, peratures persisted for 2 to 3 days, producing an unprecedented were discussed. blizzard. The 500-mb charts were derived from a graphical Analysis of the water equivalent of snow for the Blizzard of addition of a 1000- to 500-mb height chart based on what are '88, the December 1947, and the February 1969 storms showed presumed to be relatively correct sea-level pressure measure- that the water equivalent in the Borough of Queens for the ments and a guess of the 1000- to 500-mb thickness field based Lindsay February storm approached those of the Blizzard of on surface temperature observations and other factors. Slides '88 and December 1947 storms! The difference in water equiv- of the surface and upper-air charts were shown in time sequence alent amount between Manhattan and Queens for the Lindsay to demonstrate the development, intensification, and track of storm equated to an underestimate of 500 kilotons of snow on the Blizzard. the streets of Queens. Lance Bosart of the Department of Atmospheric Science at The finale was provided by Commissioner Brendan Sexton the State University of New York at Albany described the and Chief of the Bureau of Cleaning and Collecton John Doh- meteorological conditions associated with the Blizzard of '88, erty of the New York City Department of Sanitation.
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