HISTORIC WINTER STORMS
Blizzard of March 1993

Blizzard Leaves 3 Dead, But Damage Less Than Feared By LYN BIXBY, The Hartford Courant Businesses opened late, major shopping malls didn't open at all and the Whalers hockey game was postponed Sunday as Connecticut tried to dig out from a March blizzard that left two dead, dozens injured and 8 to 21 inches of snow.

Despite the intensity of a storm system that engulfed most of the East Coast, relatively little damage occurred in Connecticut.

Digging out wasn't easy. Because of the high water content of the snow and sleet, meteorologist Mel Goldstein said, a shoveler would have moved about 1 ton of material in clearing a 12-by-12-foot area.

One man died in his driveway while shoveling, and the weight of the snow was blamed for the collapse of a patio roof in Wallingford and a canopy over gas pumps at a Southington service station.

The storm moved up the coast from Florida on the anniversary of one of the worst storms on record in the East, the Blizzard of 1888, which dumped up to 5 feet of snow on March 12 and 13 of that year.

Although this weekend's snowfall fell far short of that mark, Goldstein said the storm, before it hit the state, set a record by one measure -- barometric pressure.

"It was very likely the most intense storm of the century when you look at whole picture, not just what happened in Connecticut," said Goldstein, director of the Weather Center at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. "The reason was record low barometric pressures -- the signature of intensity -- were set all way from the Carolinas to Pennsylvania."

Once the storm reached Connecticut, he said, the pressure was 28.47 inches in Hartford, "amazingly close" to the record low mark of 28.04 inches set during the September 1938 hurricane.

"I've been forecasting for 25 years," Goldstein said. "I've never remembered a storm of this magnitude, this intense, 1 to 2 foot snowfalls all the way down to northern Georgia and Alabama. We had a hurricane blizzard."

The heavy snow caused numerous problems. Six residents of a Granby condominium complex were hospitalized Sunday morning after snow covered the vents for their propane furnaces, causing fumes to back up into their homes.

Windblown snow closed Bradley International Airport for more than 19 hours before officials managed to clear one runway shortly before noon Sunday. The closing lasted longer than any since 1983, said Walt Waterman, airport operations specialist, who predicted all airlines would be back to normal schedules by Tuesday.

Because of concern about the safety of children, schools in Torrington and Waterbury will remain closed today while snow removal from side streets and sidewalks continues. School officials in New Britain were still debating Sunday night whether to open today.

"March is known to deliver the crowning jewel of the winter season," said Goldstein, "but we haven't had a month of March like this in quite a while. If you were born in the past 20 years, this is going to seem very strange."

Although it is only the midpoint of the month, he said, Connecticut has already had more than 28 inches of March snow, the third-highest total recorded by the National Weather Service in Windsor Locks, behind 33 inches in 1967 and 43 inches in 1956.

Spring begins Saturday at 9:41 a.m., but Goldstein said moderate temperatures the next two days are expected to be followed by another blast of arctic air.

Last week, forecasters warned that a monster storm, possibly the winter storm of the century, was on its way and could cause serious damage from shoreline flooding and widespread power failures from high winds.

But when it reached Connecticut Saturday, the blizzard didn't have as much punch as expected after spawning tornados in Florida and burying parts of northern Alabama and Georgia under 2 feet of snow.

In December, a two-day storm that battered the Connecticut shoreline caused more than $650 million in damage, but a wind shift during Saturday's blizzard kept tides low enough to prevent extensive shoreline flooding.

By 7 p.m. Saturday, strong gusting winds had caused power failures affecting 30,000 customers, but Northeast Utilities officials said electricity was expected to be restored to all by midnight Sunday. State police reported 145 motor vehicle accidents between 6 a.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Only 15 involved injuries and none was fatal.

Connecticut was well prepared for the storm, and Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. said Sunday the low number of accidents was an "extraordinary example of the public being part of the solution." .. End of story here...

 

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