45 inches in 3 days!
The Great White Hurricane On the first day of the storm, which lasted three days, over 30 inches of snow fell. Two days later, the total reached 45 inches. Today’s meteorologists now agree that two main factors contributed to the large amount of snowfall. The first was the amount of water vapor present in the air. The vapor came from the easterly and northeasterly winds that started in the Atlantic Ocean and then blanketed New England. The second factor was a sudden drop in temperature, which not only made for ideal snow conditions but also added to the already large amount of water vapor in the air.
In total, Connecticut received between 20 and 50 inches in various parts of the state, with snow drifts measuring 12 feet and higher. New Haven, for example, recorded drifts measuring 40 feet. More than 400 people across the East Coast died in the storm, and estimates placed total storm damage at $20 million. The storm, later called the “Great White Hurricane,” marooned trains, stranded deliverymen and laid up coal wagons.
In a reminiscence published in the Redding Times in 1960, Helen N. Upson, who lived through the storm on her family’s Redding farm, recalled that on a neighboring dairy farm “snow was so deep in the stables that cows and horses stood to their middles in it” and that “children, men and horses were everywhere struggling against the driving, blinding, drifting snow.”
In total, Connecticut received between 20 and 50 inches in various parts of the state, with snow drifts measuring 12 feet and higher. New Haven, for example, recorded drifts measuring 40 feet. More than 400 people across the East Coast died in the storm, and estimates placed total storm damage at $20 million. The storm, later called the “Great White Hurricane,” marooned trains, stranded deliverymen and laid up coal wagons.
In a reminiscence published in the Redding Times in 1960, Helen N. Upson, who lived through the storm on her family’s Redding farm, recalled that on a neighboring dairy farm “snow was so deep in the stables that cows and horses stood to their middles in it” and that “children, men and horses were everywhere struggling against the driving, blinding, drifting snow.”
