On March 12–14, 1993, a massive storm system bore down on nearly half of the U.S. population. Causing approximately $5.5 billion in damages ($9.9 billion in 2020 dollars), America’s “Storm of the Century,” as it would become known, swept from the Deep South all the way up the East Coast. Before the monster storm system developed over the East, it spun up over Texas, bringing damaging winds and hail to southeastern areas of the Lone Star State the evening of March 11.

With a central pressure usually found in Category 3 hurricanes, the storm spawned tornadoes and left coastal flooding, crippling snow, and bone-chilling cold in its wake. Of the more than 250 weather and climate events with damages exceeding $1 billion since 1980, this storm remains the country’s most costly winter storm to date.

Lots and Lots of Snow

During the height of the storm, snowfall rates of 2–3 inches per hour occurred. New York’s Catskill Mountains along with most of the central and southern Appalachians received at least 2 feet of snow. Wind-driven sleet also fell on parts of the East Coast, with central New Jersey reporting 2.5 inches of sleet on top of 12 inches of snow—creating somewhat of an “ice-cream sandwich” effect. Up to 6 inches of snow even blanketed the Florida Panhandle.

Some particularly notable snowfall totals included:

56 inches at Mount LeConte, Tennessee

50 inches at Mount Mitchell, North Carolina, with 14-foot drifts

44 inches at Snowshoe, West Virginia

43 inches at Syracuse, New York

36 inches at Latrobe, Pennsylvania, with 10-foot drifts

Overall, the storm ranked as Extreme, or a Category 5, on the Regional Snowfall Index for the Northeast, Southeast, and Ohio Valley regions. Covering more than 550,000 square miles and impacting nearly 120 million people in these three regions, the Storm of the Century still ranks as the second worst snowstorm to impact the Northeast, Southeast, and Ohio Valley.