Late-season snow facts:
- According to WBZ, Boston has had snowfall of 12 inches or more after March 20th once, in 1997. More on that in a sec. Boston has 6 instances where 6 or more inches of snow fell after March 20th. Worcester has had 12 such events.
- Spring starts at 12:30 AM this Sunday, March 20th.
- The average date of Boston's last snowfall is March 25th.
- The latest measurable snowfall for Boston was a half inch on May 10th, 1977. The latest we've had non-accumulating snow in Boston was June 10th, 1955.
- This source tells me that New York and Atlanta both have the same day, in different years, for latest snowfall... April 25th.
- Most of New England had frost on August 23rd in 1816, and lake ice was seen around the Bay State into August.. This was due to the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, which gave everyone red, smoky skies and drove worldwide temperatures down. New England had her corn crop fail, and all sorts of food prices skyrocketed. June snow fell in some parts of New England. It is known as The Year Without A Summer. They had one period where it went from 95 degrees to 35 degrees in a half day.
- Three late-season snowstorms stand out in our history. One was that May 10th, 1977 one from The Farmer's Almanac. The record is a bit later in the year for the Berkshires. The other late-season trace snow events of note in our history are the ones I was yapping about up above.
- Our second storm of note was the 1997 April Fool's Day Blizzard. Over 25 inches of snow fell on Boston, and coastal flooding tore apart the shoreline.
- Our third late-season storm of note was a 17-21 inch blockbuster that hit Worcester and areas north on April 28th, 1987.
I was a freshman at Worcester State College for that storm, and had just picked up a girl from West Boylston High School for a date... because that's how I rolled in 1987, playboy! We went to a movie, came out, and there were 6 inches of snow on the ground. We had an Italian dinner somewhere, and there was a foot on the ground when we came out of the restaurant.
I had only been driving for a year, and had zero savvy. We nearly hit a plow when we skidded all the way down a hill on Route 9. We also drove into a drift in some guy's yard in Berlin, Massachusetts. It ended well... the homeowner called his sons out to shove my car from the drift, and they came out single file... and each one was bigger than the last. "Don't worry about it, just steer" is how the father replied when I offered to make Katie drive so that I could get out and help shove the car. They literally lifted my car and threw it from the drift.
I got zero (0) play from that date, too. The only time I even got a hug as when we nearly crashed into the plow, and that may have been a case where she was trying to wrestle me into a position where the plow blade hit me first. I really can't blame her.
Anyhow, 17 inches of snow is about as much as we get that late in the year. If you get snow on your lawn after May 10th, you just saw a regional record.
Our own March Madness brackets for Worst Massachusetts Storm Ever
1) 1938 Great New England Hurricane
2) 1635 Great Colonial Hurricane
3) Blizzard of '78
4) Hurricane Bob, 1991
5) Worcester Tornado, 1953
6) Halloween Gale, 1991
7) Blizzard of 1888
8) 1898 Portland Gale
9) April Fool's Blizzard, 1997
10) Hurricane Carol/Edna, 1954
11) Hurricane Donna, 1960
12) The Great September Gale Of 1815
13) Winter of 2015
14) 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane
15) The Triple Storms of 1839
16) Blizzard of 2005
Lower Seeds:
2008 Ice Storm
1698, reported 42 inches of snow in Cambridge
1831 Snowstorm, 3 feet on the Cape
1978 pre-Blizzard January snowstorm
2011 Springfield Tornado
Blizzard of 2013
1993 Superstorm
Saxby Gale, 1869
1969 100 Hour Storm
Winter of 1717
1996 South Shore microburst
Hurricane Belle
Hurricane Gloria
Hurricane Irene
Hurricane Sandy/Post-Sandy Wareham microburst
1960 snowstorm
