 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2023) |
The Holiday Blizzards were major storms occurring in two segments during the last two weeks of December 2006 in the Denver, Colorado area. The blizzards occurred within a week of each other. A subsequent storm, smaller in scope, struck the area less than a week after the second blizzard, further hampering removal efforts and travel in the region. The blizzard covered homes.
The Holiday Blizzard I was an intense blizzard that covered the Colorado Front Range, the Colorado Eastern Plains and surrounding states. It began on December 20, 2006 with a powerful blizzard which crippled the region, forcing the closures of Interstate Highways 25, 76 and 70, as well as U.S. Routes 36 and 85. The city of Denver was shut down, the US Mail was undeliverable, and a statewide disaster was declared. Many grocery stores, department retailers and other service providing institutions were shut down or severely limited in the diversity of their supplies.
It was estimated that drifts in some areas of Denver reached up to 5 feet (1.5 m), with an average depth of about 3 feet (0.91 m). By most estimates, it was the 4th largest storm in state recorded history, (though some readings place it at 6th), and the largest state blizzard since March 2003.
Notable amounts include:
The Holiday Blizzard II was another intense snow storm. The storm killed 100 people. This storm was arguably more intense than the first, but hit a much less populated region. The storm struck Colorado on December 28 and December 29. Coming so soon after the first blizzard and forecast to be another major storm, the approach of this storm prompted runs on grocery stores, hardware stores (for snow shovels, snow blowers and generators, among other items) as residents prepared to be snowed in for a second time. Due to the previous heavy snowfalls and lack of snow removal on many residential streets (still nearly impassable from the first storm) were unmanageable.
The second blizzard to hit Colorado followed a nearly identical path, with nearly identical conditions. However, this storm slipped south and hit the Southeastern Colorado Plains, Kansas and the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles with severe wind and snow conditions. The snowfall totals from this storm were in addition to the snow that had fallen just a week previously.
This blizzard closed the Denver International Airport (DEN) at 2:45PM MST on the same day, stranding upwards of 40,000 at the airport. Due to DIA's remote location, many people were forced to spend the night inside the airport, sleeping on cots or the floor. As Denver is a major hub for United Airlines, an estimated 100,000 people were affected by the closure. The airport reopened 22 December at 12:00PM MST having been closed for a record 45 hours. [1]
Greyhound buses canceled all routes into, out of, and through Denver due to the storm.
A National Basketball Association game between the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns was postponed due to the blizzard. [2]
The blizzard caused four confirmed deaths in Colorado, including one former CSU professor and a University of Colorado undergraduate student. Over two dozen deaths were reported in the Colorado, Kansas and the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles as a result of these storms. Along the plains, between 10,000 and 15,000 cows were found dead due to the cold and severe weather conditions.
Holiday Blizzard I was focused mainly on the Colorado Front Range, resulting in far smaller snow totals for the mountain ski resorts.
Holiday Blizzard II hit the Colorado Front Range almost as hard as the first storm, however, this storm moved south and east, burying the Southeastern Colorado Plains with 3' of snow, with snowdrifts topping 10' in some places.
The first blizzard began early on Wednesday December 20, 2006, as a storm blew through the eastern plains of Colorado spilling as much as two feet of snow up and down Interstate-25, from Fort Collins to Pueblo. The entire state was mired in drifts of snow up to 8 feet (2.4 m) high and, at some locations, even higher drifts existed. Downtown Denver, in particular, experienced severe economic hardships as a result since so many paths were not clear for potential customers, but it was the same throughout many places. Denver International Airport, the tenth busiest airport in the world and one of the busiest places in Colorado, rarely closes for weather, but was forced to shut down operations for a record 45 hours. Doing so in the midst of Christmas traveling, the closing affected travel across the United States. Hundreds of flights were canceled, and many upset travelers were stranded in the DIA terminals, and even though the plows were used to maximize clearing the runways, thousands of travelers were forced to extend their stay at DIA. Many roads throughout the state were impassable, schools and other community functions were canceled immediately, and the general public of Colorado was snowed in.
The storm also pounded Albuquerque with over 26 inches of snow in less than two days. [3]
After Holiday Blizzard II the Colorado National Guard was sent to the Southeastern Colorado Plains in an attempt to access small towns isolated by heavy snowdrifts. Hay drops were instituted to feed thousands of stranded, starving cattle. Guardsmen in small helicopters were sent to break ice on water tanks for the cattle to drink.
On January 5, 2007, Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colo) and Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo) introduced legislation that would give aid to the state, counties, cities, as well as residents and livestock owners who suffered blizzard-related losses in Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. The bill would declare the heaviest hit regions as "major disaster areas" and provide those hardest hit with FEMA and other federal aid.
The Holiday Blizzards were followed by an additional storm bearing more than a foot of snow on January 4–5, bringing the snowfall total for 16 days to more than 80 inches (2.0 m) in some areas. Denver itself received over 30 inches (0.76 m) of snow and over 55 inches (1.4 m) total for the season. [4]
On January 4, 2007, United Airlines announced more than $40 million in losses from the storms' effects on holiday travel.
Concerns about potential cattle losses prompted Colorado to airlift hay to the hardest hit areas, including the use of UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters from the Colorado National Guard and a C-130 from the Wyoming National Guard. [5] Losses in a similar storm in 1997 resulted in over 27,000 cattle fatalities with an economic loss of $27 million. [5] Final losses were estimated between 10,000 and 15,000 cattle in Colorado. [6] Overall, National Guard units, including ones from Wyoming and Oklahoma, dropped feed to an estimated 345,000 cattle stranded by ten foot drifts. [7]
Following the storms, Denver and its surrounding cities struggled to move tons of snow. The cost for snow removal in December 2006 alone was $2.8 million and for the period January to March 2007 the cost was $10.2 million. [4] Many of the side streets in Denver remained covered in snow which turned to thick ice due to continued residential traffic. According to the Denver Department of Public Works, snow and ice removal efforts continued until March 26, 2007. Overall, Denver experienced the second longest period of consecutive days of snow cover, from December 21, 2006 through February 19, 2007. [4] Once the snow melted, the city was faced with filling over 50,000 potholes that resulted from the extreme temperatures and moisture. [4]
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling but loose snow on the ground is lifted and blown by strong winds. Blizzards can have an immense size and usually stretch to hundreds or thousands of kilometres.
A winter storm is an event in which wind coincides with varieties of precipitation that only occur at freezing temperatures, such as snow, mixed snow and rain, or freezing rain. In temperate continental and subarctic climates, these storms are not necessarily restricted to the winter season, but may occur in the late autumn and early spring as well. A snowstorm with strong winds and other conditions meeting certain criteria is called a blizzard.
The blizzard of 1977 hit Western New York and Southern Ontario from January 28 to February 1 of that year. Daily peak wind gusts ranging from 46 to 69 mph were recorded by the National Weather Service in Buffalo, with snowfall as high as 100 in (254 cm) recorded in areas, and the high winds blew this into drifts of 30 to 40 ft. There were 23 total storm-related deaths in Western New York, with five more in northern New York.
The 1993 Storm of the Century was a cyclonic storm that formed over the Gulf of Mexico on March 12, 1993. The cold weather, heavy snowfall, high winds and storm surges that the storm brought affected a very large area; at its height, it stretched from Canada to Honduras. The cyclone moved through the Gulf of Mexico and then through the eastern United States before moving on to eastern Canada. It eventually dissipated in the North Atlantic Ocean on March 15.
The Great Blizzard of 1978 was a historic winter storm that struck the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes regions of the United States as well as Southern Ontario in Canada from Wednesday, January 25 through Friday, January 27, 1978. It is often cited as one of the most severe blizzards in US history. The third lowest non-tropical atmospheric pressure ever recorded in the mainland United States occurred as the storm passed over Mount Clemens, Michigan, where barometer readings fell to 956.0 mb (28.23 inHg) on January 26.
The Blizzard of 1999 was a strong winter snowstorm which struck the Midwestern United States and portions of central and eastern Canada, hitting hardest in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, southern Ontario, and southern Quebec dumping as much as 60 centimetres (2 ft) of snow in many areas. Chicago received a recorded 21.6 in (55 cm). The storm hit just after New Year's Day, between January 2 and January 4, 1999. Travel was severely disrupted throughout the areas and the cities of Chicago and Toronto were also paralyzed. Additionally, record low temperatures were measured in many towns in the days immediately after the storm.
The Early Winter 2006 North American storm complex was a severe winter storm that occurred on November 26, 2006, and continued into December 1. It affected much of North America in some form, producing various kinds of severe weather including a major ice storm, blizzard conditions, high winds, extreme cold, a serial derecho and some tornadoes.
The January 2007 North American ice storm was a severe ice storm that affected a large swath of North America from the Rio Grande Valley to New England and southeastern Canada, starting on January 11 and lasting until January 16. It was followed by a second wave in the Southern United States from Texas to the Carolinas from January 16 through January 18, and a third one that hit the southern Plains and mid-Atlantic states as well as Newfoundland and Labrador from January 19 to January 24. It resulted in at least 74 deaths across 12 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces, and caused hundreds of thousands of residents across the U.S. and Canada to lose electric power.
The North American blizzard of 2008 was a winter storm that struck most of southern and eastern North America from March 6 to March 10, 2008. The storm was most notable for a major winter storm event from Arkansas to Quebec. It also produced severe weather across the east coast of the United States with heavy rain, damaging winds and tornadoes, causing locally significant damage. The hardest hit areas by the wintry weather were from the Ohio Valley to southern Quebec where up to a half a meter of snow fell locally including the major cities of Columbus, Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio, and Ottawa, Ontario. For many areas across portions of the central United States, Ontario and Quebec, it was the worst winter storm in the past several years. The blizzard and its aftermath caused at least 17 deaths across four US states and three Canadian provinces, while hundreds others were injured mostly in weather-related accidents and tornadoes.
The Eastern Canadian blizzard of March 1971 was a severe winter storm that struck portions of eastern Canada from March 3 to March 5, 1971. The storm was also nicknamed the "Storm of the Century" in Quebec. The event included the worst 24-hour snowfall on record in the city of Montreal with 43 centimetres of snow falling on March 4, for a total of 47 centimetres, until the one-day record was broken again on December 27, 2012. Higher terrain in eastern Quebec received as much as 80 centimetres. Heavy snowfall was also recorded in eastern Ontario and northern New Brunswick as well as parts of the Northeastern United States. The storm itself was responsible for the deaths of 17 people in Montreal along with numerous other injuries directly and indirectly attributed to the blizzard.
The February 9–10, 2010 North American blizzard was a winter and severe weather event that afflicted the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and New England regions of the United States between February 9–11, 2010, affecting some of the same regions that had experienced a historic Nor'easter just three days earlier. The storm brought 10 to 20 inches of snow across a wide swath from Washington, D.C., to New York City, with parts of the Baltimore metro area receiving more than 20 inches (51 cm). This storm began as a classic "Alberta clipper", starting out in Canada and then moving southeast, and finally curving northeast while rapidly intensifying off the New Jersey coast, forming an eye. The National Weather Service likened this storm to a Category 1 hurricane: "Winds topped 58 mph over part of the Chesapeake Bay, and 40 mph gusts were common across the region as the storm's center deepened and drifted slowly along the mid-Atlantic coast". The storm system, in conjunction with the earlier storm, has been nicknamed "Snoverkill."
The December 1960 nor'easter was a significant early-season winter storm that impacted the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions of the United States. Moderate to heavy snowfall fell from West Virginia to eastern Maine, amounting to 10 in (25 cm) or more in parts of 13 states and peaking at 21.4 in (54 cm) at Newark, New Jersey. The storm was accompanied by strong winds, gusting to over 90 mph (140 km/h) in coastal New England, and left in its wake a dangerously cold air mass. The storm originated in a weak low pressure area which formed over the western Gulf of Mexico on December 10. A secondary low developed over South Carolina on the next day, supported by the merger of two troughs aloft. Sliding southeast of New England, the new storm explosively deepened to become a full-fledged nor'easter, with a minimum central air pressure of 966 mbar. It began to weaken over the Canadian Maritimes.
Global storm activity of 2008 profiles the major worldwide storms, including blizzards, ice storms, and other winter events, from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008. A winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures, such as snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form. It may be marked by strong wind, thunder and lightning, heavy precipitation, such as ice, or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere. Major dust storms, Hurricanes, cyclones, tornados, gales, flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent.
Global weather activity of 2007 profiles the major worldwide weather events, including blizzards, ice storms, tornadoes, tropical cyclones, and other weather events, from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2007. Winter storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are formed during cold temperatures; they include snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice, including freezing rain, to form. Thehy may be marked by strong wind, thunder, lightning thunderstorms, heavy precipitation, including ice storm, wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere, including dust storms, snowstorms, and hail storms. Other major non winter events such as large dust storms, hurricanes, cyclones, tornados, gales, flooding, and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena.
Global weather activity of 2006 profiles the major worldwide weather events, including blizzards, ice storms, tropical cyclones, tornadoes, and other weather events, from January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2006. Winter storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures, such as snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form. It may be marked by strong wind, thunder and lightning, heavy precipitation, such as ice, or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere. Other major non winter events such as large dust storms, Hurricanes, cyclones, tornados, gales, flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent.
The Chicago blizzard of 1967 struck northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana on January 26–27, 1967, with a record-setting 23 inches (58 cm) snow fall in Chicago and its suburbs before the storm abated the next morning. As of 2024, it remains the greatest snowfall in one storm in Chicago history. As the blizzard was a surprise during the day with people already at work or school, it stopped the city for a few days as people dug out. "The storm was a full-blown blizzard, with 50 mph-plus northeast wind gusts creating drifts as high as 15 feet."
The January 25–27, 2011 North American blizzard was a major Mid-Atlantic nor'easter and winter storm, and a New England blizzard that affected portions of the northeastern United States and Canada. This storm came just two weeks after a previous major blizzard had already affected most of these same areas earlier on the same month of January 2011. The storm also came just one month after a previous major blizzard that affected the entire area after Christmas in December 2010. This storm was the third significant snowstorm to affect the region during the 2010–11 North American winter storm season. It was followed a few days later by another massive storm that blanketed much of the United States and Canada.
The 2011 Groundhog Day blizzard was a powerful and historic winter storm that affected large swaths of the United States and Canada from January 31 to February 2, 2011, especially on Groundhog Day. During the initial stages of the storm, some meteorologists predicted that the system would affect over 100 million people in the United States. The storm brought cold air, heavy snowfall, blowing snow, and mixed precipitation on a path from New Mexico and northern Texas to New England and Eastern Canada. The Chicago area saw 21.2 inches (54 cm) of snow and blizzard conditions, with winds of over 60 mph (100 km/h). With such continuous winds, the blizzard continued to the north and affected Eastern and Atlantic Canada. Blizzard conditions affected many other large cities along the storm's path, including Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield, El Paso, Las Cruces, Des Moines, Milwaukee, Detroit, Indianapolis, Dayton, Cleveland, New York City, New York's Capital District, and Boston. Many other areas not normally used to extreme winter conditions, including Albuquerque, Dallas and Houston, experienced significant snowfall or ice accumulation. The central Illinois National Weather Service in Lincoln, Illinois, issued only their fourth blizzard warning in the forecast office's 16-year history. Snowfall amounts of 20 to 28 inches were forecast for much of Northern and Western Illinois.
The March 2013 nor'easter was a powerful nor'easter that affected much of the United States, most notably New England. On March 6, the system moved into the Mid-Atlantic region of the east coast, and intensified into a nor'easter, dumping up to 3 feet of snow in some places. By late March 6, 2013, the nor'easter had knocked out power to about 250,000 homes and businesses.
The October 1997 North American storm complex was a blizzard and tornado outbreak that affected the Northwest, Rockies, much of the Midwest and Deep South. 84 tornadoes were confirmed as the system moved eastward across the eastern half of the United States, including four that were rated as F3 on the Fujita scale.