Southern Maryland – King Henry Hill of Chaptico was 47 years old when it snowed to the top of the fence paling. He wrote the date in pencil on the inside wall of the granary where he kept his wheat: Jan. 27, 1922.
The date recorded on King Hill’s granary wall in 1922 came to be known as the Knickerbocker Storm, the blizzard in which the Knickerbocker Theater’s flat roof collapsed under the weight of snow in Washington, DC, still considered one of the great snowstorms to ever hit the region.
That tragedy killed almost 100 people and injured more than that. The theater’s architect and owner both committed suicide in the wake of the disaster.
Just like the storm assaulting Southern Maryland this weekend, the region has known its share of blizzards in recorded history.
Capt. John Smith referred in his writings to the extremely cold winter of 1607-1608.
While specific details are missing from the records, Smith indicated the severity of the first winter was responsible for the loss of more than half of the Jamestown Colony.
Recorded in both George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s diaries, the winter storm of Jan. 28, 1772 left 30 to 36 inches of snow from Charlottesville and Winchester, VA up to Washington, DC. The storm is still considered the unofficial record for snowfall in the region. Deep snow prevented travel for up to two weeks. Postal service was suspended for over a month.
The winter of 1779-1780 was so cold that ice was said to have been piled 20 feet high along the Virginia Coast and stayed there until spring. The upper portion of the Chesapeake Bay was frozen, allowing people to walk from Annapolis to Kent Island. The Virginia portion of the bay was frozen near the mouth, as well as most waterways in the region.
The Chesapeake Bay froze again during the long winter of 1783-1784. Ice on the Potomac River did not break until March 15.
From Jan. 4-5, 1835, Alexandria recorded a low temperature of -15°F. The Potomac River froze and the Chesapeake Bay froze down to the Virginia Capes for the first time in nearly 50 years.
A heavy snowstorm that rivaled Jefferson and Washington’s 1777 observations dropped up to 30 inches in the Tidewater area in March of 1841.
The Great Blizzard and Freeze of Jan. 18-19, 1857, dumped 14 to 24 inches of snow in Washington, D.C., with drifts four feet deep. The Chesapeake Bay was solid ice one-and-a-half miles out from its coast.
The Great Arctic Outbreak of ’99 and the Great Eastern Blizzard of ’99, February 1899 brought extreme cold to the region. A record low of -20°F was registered at Quantico, VA and Washington, D.C. recorded -15°F Feb. 11. The temperature fell to -21°F in Fredericksburg. The blizzard struck on Valentine’s Day, pummeling Washington, D.C. with 34 inches of snow.
One sidebar to this particular storm is a wonderful story about the lighthouse keepers at Smith Island in Virginia, who were contemplating whether or not to abandon the screwpile lighthouse they were assigned to in 1899. There was a warming trend just before Valentine’s Day, and the frozen Chesapeake began to thaw into huge chunks of ice which began hammering the poles on which the lighthouse rested. The two men finally decided to vacate and scuttled across the ice to shore in a rowboat, where citizens greeted them with blankets and warm beverages.
The hammering of the ice eventually dislodged the structure from its perch and it was drifting down the Chesapeake Bay when a salvage ship happened by and the captain attached a cable to it, towing it to Baltimore where it was sold for salvage.
The Knickerbocker Storm King Hill recorded on his granary wall descended on the region exactly 150 years after the Washington and Jefferson Storm. The storm struck from South Carolina to Massachusetts with a heavy snow band stretching across Richmond (19 inches) and Washington, D.C. (28 inches), immobilizing the region.
The Palm Sunday Snowstorm March 29-30, 1942 came late in the season.
Washington, DC and portions of Northern Virginia received a foot of snow.
In 1958, Over 14 inches of snow fell in the Washington area during a mid-February storm, paralyzing transportation. St. Mary’s County residents recall birds being frozen in fast moving, freezing winds accompanying this blizzard.
Between the fall of 1960 into the winter of 1961, the region was hammered.
The first storm descended Dec. 10-12, 1960 with heavy snow and high winds from Virginia into New York, resulting in a great traffic jam in northern and central Virginia all the way up to Washington, D.C. Another storm struck Feb. 3-5, assaulting the region with severe cold and gale force winds. Eight inches of snow fell in Washington with up to 36 inches in New York.
In late January 1966, a severe blizzard struck the Northeastern United States. Southern Maryland residents didn’t see the ground for weeks that winter.
The winter of 1977 was the coldest experienced on the East Coast in 200 years. The Tidal Potomac froze solid enough that people could skate across it near the Memorial Bridge. The average temperature for the month of January in Washington was 25.4°F, which was the coldest since 1856 when the temperature averaged 21.4°F.
In February 1979 I flew out to visit friends in Southern California. I woke the next morning to radio broadcasts that it had snowed 15 inches in the east. What became known as the President’s Day Storm brought another severe system behind it. Before I came back home two weeks later, it had snowed another foot-and-a-half. I came home from my two-week vacation to three feet of snow in Chaptico.
Some of the region’s most severe snowstorms, however, have occurred in the past 35 years.
Two days before Valentine’s Day, 1983, the so-called “Megalopolitan Blizzard” left some areas of northwest Montgomery and Frederick counties with the largest amount of snow ever recorded in those areas, even more than the 1922 Knickerbocker Storm.
Snow totals of 16 inches from the storm were not uncommon.
The Blizzard of 1996 was an early January storm that started around 9 p.m. Jan. 6 and didn’t stop for two days, dumping a foot of snow on the region in a 24-hour period. President Bill Clinton shut down the federal government for almost a week and property damage estimates ranged from $600 million to $3 billion.
Another President’s Day Snowstorm, this one in 2003, dumped heavy snow on the region. Much like the storm affecting Southern Maryland residents this weekend, this snowstorm was the result of an El Nino pattern in the Pacific, bringing whiteout conditions, heavy snow, sleet and bitter cold. There were 16.7 inches of snow reported at Reagan National Airport, but Baltimore/Washington International Airport registered 28.2 inches, knocking the record set during the Knickerbocker Storm of 1922 out of the ball park.
The storm dubbed “Snowpocalypse” in December 2009 gave Southern Marylanders a rare White Christmas when almost 16-and-a-half inches of snow fell the week before Santa’s annual visit. There are only 13 years on record with an inch or more of snow on the ground in Washington, D.C. on Christmas Day.
And finally, the storm designated as “Snowmaggedon” by President Barack Obama, the Feb. 5-6 storm in 2010 left 17.8 inches of snow and paralyzed the region.
While many of us watch the snow whirl through howling wind outside of our windows, be comforted with the thought that it is not ice.
While major snowstorms can make us stay home or venture out in four-wheel drive vehicles to play in the snow, ice storms like the one which struck the region in the winter of 1994, are destructive.
Frozen limbs exploded like shotgun blasts as trees fell at a rapid rate, power lines were compromised and glazed roads created one of the most debilitating weather events the region has ever known.
And while Jonas may not be as bad as some storms occurring throughout the region’s history, rest assured, it is likely to go down in the record books along with the rest.
Just remember, it could always be worse.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com