The Forgotten Blizzard of 1886 - Are
our climate records better today?
Tim Morrin
Jeffrey Tongue
NWS New York, NY
Gilda - 1946
January 9, 1886
March 13, 1888 ??
NCDC
•
•
•
•
High 25
Low 15
Pcpn 0.30”
Snow ???
• Check of The Applied Climate Information
System (ACIS), NOAA Regional Climate
Centers.
• SAME RESULT. Record of 4.3” in 1974
NWS Web Page
Records
• Dr. Daniel Draper
• 1841-1931
• Director of the
New York
Meteorological
Observatory
1869-1911
• Records are in the
Library of Congress
Where??
What Did Dr. Draper Report??
5”
How??
• The Draper selfrecording
pluviometer.
U.S. Signal Service:
Daily Journal
• 28.719” Hg (972 mb)
• Anemometer Cups Blown
Away.
• 44 miles in velocity.
• Street and RR Travel almost
entirely suspended.
• Many Marine Disasters
Reported.
• TOTAL SNOWFALL:
• 11.90”
Today
ASOS
ZOO
Central Park Zoo
The correct way to measure
snow
Measuring snow
Sometimes not a “nobrainer”!
SNOW
BOARDS. Approx. 3 ft
X 3 ft and painted
white.
You will need two
never
One board
gets
swept (this one is for
continuous snow depth)
•The other board gets
swept during snow
event every 6 hours.
Wiggle room here!!
•The total snowfall for
event is the Summation
of all 6 hourly
measurements
First order climate locations
• At airports—MANY
challenges
• Poor siting-NWS has no say
where they are.
• Too many obstructions
• Too few acceptable locations to measure.
• CENTRAL PARK BETTER—open sky, natural terrain,
24/7 coverage, yearly training.
• Doing it here since winter of 1996-97
QUESTIONS ?????