| The Blizzard of 2006 was a two-day storm that | | | | North Haven 13.0 Inches |
| buried New York City and much of the northeast | | | | Wallingford 12.5 Inches |
| under up to two feet or more of snow. Although | | | | Guilford 12.0 Inches |
| technically not a blizzard (with sustained winds of | | | | Madison 12.0 Inches |
| between 20-30 miles an hour in most areas) except | | | | Milford 11.3 Inches |
| in parts of Long Island and elsewhere, this | | | | Orange 11.0 Inches |
| snowstorm buried New York City under a record | | | | New London County: |
| 26.9" of snow, breaking the previous mark that had | | | | Norwich 14.0 Inches |
| been set during the December 26-27, 1947 blizzard | | | | Oakdale 14.0 Inches |
| that had dumped 26.4" of snow. With its staggering | | | | Voluntown 14.0 Inches |
| totals, the Blizzard of 2006 confounded earlier | | | | Colchester 13.8 Inches |
| forecasts that had called for between 5-10 inches of | | | | Sprague 12.0 Inches |
| snow across the region. | | | | East Lyme 11.0 Inches |
| Per The New York Times, when describing the | | | | Lisbon 10.5 Inches |
| storm, it was "a great Crab nebula 1,200 miles long | | | | Groton 10.3 Inches |
| and 500 miles wide on satellite images and a ghostly | | | | New Jersey: |
| apparition on the ground [that] crawled up the | | | | Bergen County: |
| Eastern Seaboard... with winds that gusted up to 60 | | | | Ridgewood 19.0 Inches |
| miles an hour, and cloaked the cities to countrysides | | | | Rutherford 19.0 Inches |
| from North Carolina to coastal Maine with 12 to more | | | | Teaneck 19.0 Inches |
| than 27 inches of snow, which broke or challenged | | | | Cliffside Park 18.0 Inches |
| records in many locales."[1] | | | | Rivervale 18.0 Inches |
| Up through February 10, 2006, the 2005-06 winter | | | | Tenafly 18.0 Inches |
| had been unusually mild, recording the third warmest | | | | North Arlington 17.5 Inches |
| January on record. In addition, snowfall had been | | | | Bergenfield 16.6 Inches |
| lacking with a total accumulation to date of 11.7 | | | | Montvale 16.5 Inches |
| inches after a promising 10 inch start in December | | | | Essex County: |
| 2005. Yet by February 8, meteorologists began to | | | | Montclair 21.8 Inches |
| mention "snow" in their forecasts. Initially they called | | | | West Orange 21.0 Inches |
| for the possibility of some snow if a developing | | | | Newark 20.7 Inches |
| nor'easter moved close enough to the coast. Two | | | | South Orange 18.0 Inches |
| days later, with the NAM model moving into | | | | West Caldwell 17.6 Inches |
| consensus with the American-GSR and European | | | | Belleville 17.4 Inches |
| models, both of which called for a significant | | | | Cedar Grove 17.1 Inches |
| accumulation, the National Weather Service issued a | | | | Hudson County: |
| blizzard watch for the New York metropolitan region, | | | | Hoboken 20.7 Inches |
| among other areas. Forecasters upped the ante, | | | | Jersey City 20.0 Inches |
| calling for up to 6-12 inches. | | | | Harrison 17.5 Inches |
| Although a blizzard warning was posted on Saturday, | | | | Passaic County: |
| February 11, 2006, forecasters refused to budge | | | | West Paterson 20.0 Inches |
| from the previous day's projected amounts. The only | | | | Hawthorne 15.5 Inches |
| exception was Accuweather® meteorologist Joe | | | | Union County: |
| Bastardi. He hinted in a discussion that the storm had | | | | Rahway 27 Inches |
| the potential to dump between 20-24 inches across | | | | Roselle 24.6 Inches |
| the New York metropolitan area if optimal conditions | | | | Cranford 20.6 Inches |
| developed, permitting rapid intensification. | | | | Garwood 18.0 Inches |
| Despite the blizzard warning, the February 11th day | | | | Hillside 17.0 Inches |
| started out partly cloudy. There were even moments | | | | Union 16.0 Inches |
| of sunshine and blue sky. However, as the day | | | | New York: |
| progressed, the sky turned gray as the nor'easter's | | | | Bronx County: |
| leading bands of clouds slid into the area. | | | | Bronx 24.5 Inches |
| Furthermore, as the New York metro area's sky | | | | Westchester 23.9 Inches |
| became leaden, the storm began to show signs of | | | | Parkchester 20.4 Inches |
| slowing as it redeveloped off the Carolina coast, | | | | Woodlawn 17.0 Inches |
| hinting that Bastardi's higher amounts might be more | | | | Kings County: |
| likely. | | | | Brooklyn Marine Park 19.5 Inches |
| A light snow overspread the area at about 7:00 PM. | | | | Flatlands 19.0 Inches |
| Yet up to midnight, accumulations were barely over | | | | Midwood 18.7 Inches |
| 2½ inches because of the storm's wet nature | | | | Sunset Park 18.5 Inches |
| and light intensity. | | | | Sheepshead Bay 18.0 Inches |
| However, by 2:00 AM, February 12, 2006, things | | | | Broadway Junction 17.0 Inches |
| began to rapidly change. The temperature fell | | | | Nassau County: |
| (ranging from 23°-28° Fahrenheit in New | | | | Great Neck 23.6 Inches |
| York City), the flakes became light and fluffy, and | | | | Carle Place 20.0 Inches |
| the storm intensified and slowed to almost a crawl. | | | | Woodbury 20.0 Inches |
| By the pre-dawn hours blizzard-like and at times, | | | | Muttontown 18.6 Inches |
| whiteout conditions existed with fierce winds. Starting | | | | Bellmore 17.8 Inches |
| at about 5:00-6:00 AM bright lightening followed by | | | | Farmingdale 17.5 Inches |
| loud crashes of thunder unleashed blinding torrents of | | | | Syosset 16.0 Inches |
| flakes. The thunder persisted for hours, quickly raising | | | | East Meadow 15.2 Inches |
| the storm's totals (about 7 inches had fallen in Central | | | | Massapequa Park 14.0 Inches |
| Park by at 7:00 AM, 10 inches by 8 AM and 22 inches | | | | New Hyde Park 14.0 Inches |
| by 10 AM). | | | | Hicksville 13.7 Inches |
| During the height of the storm that consisted of high | | | | Oceanside 13.1 Inches |
| winds and accumulations of between 3-5 inches per | | | | Plainview 13.0 Inches |
| hour, all three of the major New York metropolitan | | | | Lynbrook 11.0 Inches |
| area airports were shutdown along with Ronald | | | | New York County: |
| Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., stranding | | | | Columbia University 27 Inches |
| thousands. Another hundred were stranded for hours | | | | Central Park 26.9 Inches |
| on a stuck Long Island Railroad (L.I.R.R.) train after | | | | Chinatown 24.7 Inches |
| the electrified rail became buried in snow. | | | | Orange County: |
| In addition, the L.I.R.R. suspended train service while | | | | Cornwall 10.0 Inches |
| the New Jersey Port Authority halted bus service. | | | | Putnam County: |
| Driving was treacherous - vehicles without warning | | | | Brewster 24.0 Inches |
| became stuck in snowdrifts, others came | | | | Lake Carmel 22.5 Inches |
| treacherously close to running off buried roads and | | | | Carmel 19.0 Inches |
| still others were involved in accidents. When the local | | | | Putnam Lake 18.0 Inches |
| airports opened late Sunday evening, a Turkish | | | | Queens County: |
| Airways plane skidded upon landing at La Guardia | | | | Astoria 26.0 Inches |
| airport causing more delays. | | | | La Guardia Airport 25.4 Inches |
| As the storm raged, plows worked non-stop in an | | | | Flushing 19.9 Inches |
| attempt to keep main roads clear (in New York City | | | | Richmond Hill 19.5 Inches |
| 2,500 Department of Sanitation employees worked | | | | Far Rockaway 17.5 Inches |
| 12-hour shifts and scores of volunteers were hired at | | | | JFK Airport 16.7 Inches |
| $10 per hour to assist with snow removal | | | | Richmond County: |
| operations). | | | | Clove Lakes Park 22.0 Inches |
| Then just when it appeared that the storm would fall | | | | Castleton Corners 20.0 Inches |
| just short of the 1947 record, with nearly 25 inches | | | | Eltingville 16.6 Inches |
| on the ground at about 1:00 PM, a final band of snow | | | | Travis 15.0 Inches |
| materialized out of nowhere, dumping the final 2 | | | | Rockland County: |
| inches necessary. By 4:00 PM it was official, the | | | | New City 20.1 Inches |
| Blizzard of 2006 was New York City's worst storm | | | | Valley Cottage 16.0 Inches |
| since record keeping began in Central Park in 1869. | | | | Stony Point 12.0 Inches |
| The National Weather Service reported the 26.9-inch | | | | Sparkill 10.2 Inches |
| accumulation, which eclipsed the old mark as well as | | | | Suffolk County: |
| the legendary Blizzards of 1888 and 1996 that had | | | | Islip 20.0 Inches |
| buried New York City under 21.0 and 20.2 inches, | | | | Medford 19.1 Inches |
| respectively. | | | | Wading River 17.9 Inches |
| Yet by midday Sunday, when the snow had been | | | | Bellport 17.0 Inches |
| tapering off, pedestrians took advantage of the | | | | Orient 17.0 Inches |
| scenic beauty venturing into the streets to take | | | | East Northport 15.2 Inches |
| photographs while children enjoyed sledding and | | | | Commack 15.0 Inches |
| skiing. Within 24-48 hours, a rapid melt-down began | | | | Port Jefferson 15.0 Inches |
| with temperatures soaring into the 50s enabling life to | | | | Miller Place 14.8 Inches |
| return to normal. Amazingly, unlike the previous New | | | | Center Moriches 14.3 Inches |
| York City record holder storm, which had killed 77 | | | | Lake Ronkonkoma 14.0 Inches |
| people, the Blizzard of 2006 left no fatalities in the | | | | North Patchogue 14.0 Inches |
| tri-state area. | | | | Upton 13.9 Inches |
| Tri-State Storm Totals | | | | Baiting Hollow 13.7 Inches |
| Connecticut: | | | | Lindenhurst 13.5 Inches |
| Fairfield County: | | | | Centerport 13.4 Inches |
| West Redding 28.0 Inches | | | | Smithtown 13.3 Inches |
| Easton 27. 0 Inches | | | | Hauppauge 13.2 Inches |
| Danbury 26.0 Inches | | | | North Babylon 12.3 Inches |
| Ridgefield 25.0 Inches | | | | Shirley 11.7 Inches |
| North Stamford 24.5 Inches | | | | Dix Hills 10.7 Inches |
| Darien 22.5 Inches | | | | Commack 10.0 Inches |
| Shelton 22.5 Inches | | | | Westchester County: |
| Norwalk 22.0 Inches | | | | New Rochelle 24.5 Inches |
| New Canaan 21.7 Inches | | | | Pound Ridge 24.0 Inches |
| Bethel 21.0 Inches | | | | Yonkers 23.9 Inches |
| Fairfield 18.0 Inches | | | | Eastchester 23.2 Inches |
| Brookfield 17.0 Inches | | | | Katonah 22.0 Inches |
| Sherman 16.0 Inches | | | | White Plains 21.5 Inches |
| Stratford 13.0 Inches | | | | Yorktown Heights 21.0 Inches |
| Bridgeport 12.5 Inches | | | | Hastings-On-Hudson 20.0 Inches |
| Monroe 12.0 Inches | | | | Rye Brook 20.0 Inches |
| Middlesex County: | | | | Bronxville 19.8 Inches |
| Durham 17.0 Inches | | | | Mount Kisco 19.5 Inches |
| Clinton 12.5 Inches | | | | North Salem 19.0 Inches |
| Haddam 11.3 Inches | | | | Armonk 18.5 Inches |
| Old Saybrook 11.3 Inches | | | | Croton-On-Hudson 16.0 Inches |
| Middlesex County: | | | | ____________________________ |
| Southbury 25.0 Inches | | | | [1] A Record Snow: 26.9 Inches Fall In New York City |
| Wolcott 25.0 Inches | | | | - Old Mark of 1947 Broken... The New York Times. |
| Waterbury 23.0 Inches | | | | February 13, 2006. p.1. |
| Meriden 21.0 Inches | | | | ____________________________ |
| Seymour 21.0 Inches | | | | Sources: |
| Beacon Falls 20.0 Inches | | | | Newsday. February 13, 2006. |
| Cheshire 18.0 Inches | | | | The Journal News. February 13, 2006. |
| East Meriden 17.0 Inches | | | | New York Area snowfall reports. The National |
| New Haven 16.0 Inches | | | | Weather Service. February 13, 2006. |
| North Madison 15.0 Inches | | | | The New York Daily News. February 13, 2006. |
| West Haven 14.0 Inches | | | | The New York Post. February 13, 2006. |